Sublimation
by thisismymo
Summary: Sequel to Permafrost. Lucy and Steve have just been reunited, but the Tesseract is now active and with that, comes the destruction of Loki, God of Mischief. Follow the enhanced super soldiers as they, and the rest of the Avengers, deal with the madman intent on taking over their world. Steve/OC
1. Skylark

Disclaimer: I only own my OC Lucy. I also make various references to related MARVEL comics/movies and other non related movies/tv shows/music etc. I do not claim to own any of these things.

In a secluded safe house…

Steve didn't really know where he was; it was dark when they arrived. But, it was quiet, so he knew they were far away from the rest of civilization. The windows were covered by thin white drapes that filtered the sunlight. A slight cool breeze came through the screens, causing the hangings to dance in the wind. The soothing sounds of nature could be heard just beyond the walls of the small house.

In the next room, faint popping and crackling noises could be heard from a frying pan. Standing at the entrance, he could see the slight form of Lucy who was at the stove making breakfast. At the same time she was softly singing and swaying along to the familiar sounds of jazz, streaming out of a counter top radio.

" _Skylark_

 _Have you anything to say to me?_

 _Won't you tell me where my love can be?"_

A peaceful grin spread across his face as he watched her. She was exquisite. The light from the side window caressed the side of her face, illuminating her whole being. Her hair, now reaching down to the middle of her back, was effortlessly wavy. Gone where the tight victory curls that used to frame her face. The color was still the same, a deep chocolate brown that had natural streaks of coppery red and gold.

" _Is there a meadow in the mist?_

 _Where someone's waiting to be kissed?"_

Her face was calm. A lovely smile stretched across her pink lips. No longer were they stained a deep crimson red. The sparkle in her large blue eyes still shined from beneath her long dark lashes. Her voice rang out clear and smooth, complementing the singer.

" _Skylark_

 _Have you seen a valley green with spring?_

 _Where my heart can go a journeying?"_

She was taller now. Not outrageously so, still shorter than him, but taller than before. Her movements were more graceful than they used to be as well, if that were even possible. Deft fingers and hands stirred the contents of the pan. The rest of her shifted back and forth, in time to the sweet music.

" _And in your lonely flight_

 _Haven't you heard the music in the night?"_

The way she soulfully sang the lyrics told him they meant a great deal to her. Seventy years, and yet she still came back to the music of their time.

 _Wonderful music, faint as a will o' the wisp_

 _Crazy as a loon, sad as a gypsy serenading the moon"_

After the abrupt introduction to the present day, Fury sent Lucy with him to a safe house, to recover. Now he was grateful for the peace and quiet, but yesterday, he was just shocked at everything that was happening. Standing here in the kitchen, he could almost pretend it was still the 40s.

" _Oh Skylark_

 _I don't know if you can find these things_

 _But my heat is riding on your wings"_

They had just won the war, and he was the luckiest man alive to be able to come home to his dame. And what a wonderful woman she was. She chose him. She waited for him. She thought he was worthy of her affections. And he felt proud to be called hers, no matter what time they were in.

" _So if you see them anywhere_

 _Won't you lead me there?"_

As the song came to a close Lucy took the scrambled eggs out of the pan and put them onto a pair of plates. Turning around she came to find Steve staring at her, how long he'd been there she didn't know. Leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen with his arms crossed, a loving smile graced his lips. He was still wearing his pajamas, his hair ruffled from sleep.

"I could've helped you." He nodded to the meal she placed on the table.

She beamed, turning to retrieve the cutlery, "I didn't want to wake you. I know you didn't get much sleep."

He moved from the door taking the utensils from her hands and stopping her, "I've been asleep for 70 years. You could've woken me up." Leaning in he whispered, "I've waited too long to see your face again." Then he caught her lips with his for a gentle kiss good morning. That pilot light was still there. A slow burning, that no matter how much ice or time separated them, refused to go out. From a spark, a flame evolved that warmed their whole beings. They were coming home after a long winter apart.

Lucy smiled at his advance, "You know." She replied between kisses, her fingers tracing up his neck into his uncombed hair, "The food is going to go cold."

"I don't care." Steve grinned, placing the forks and knives on the counter top as to free his hands to hold her, "I can deal with the cold."

They were the perfect height for each other. His hand ran up her spine from the small of her back, into her long locks. They were at a very accessible length now, the softness of the strands running like water over his palm. Her own hands worked wonders at the base of his scalp, putting him in a delightfully peaceful state. Just as he was about to deepen the kiss, she pulled away.

Smirking at his pout, Lucy laughed and pulled out a chair for herself, "Well, I didn't cook us eggs to eat them cold. Besides," she filled her cup with fruit juice, "we've got all the time in the world for that later."

Steve sighed as he sat down, handing her a fork, "I'm holding you to that promise."

-sublimation-

"What do you mean you're going away for a few weeks?" Tony sputtered into his phone, "I thought you wanted to help me plan Stark Tower?"

"Remember Project Frostbite I told you about?" Lucy replied as she packed her bag, "I'm going to the Arctic Circle. I'll probably be gone for a while."

Unintelligible grumbling could be heard over on his end, "Fine, but I thought you were taking a break after whatever went down in New Mexico. Whatever. Go defrost Captain Popsicle."

"Eddie." She reprimanded, "Behave, I'll check in soon. Be nice to Gin and don't make that building too ostentatious. Also, change the name of that element, I don't think the world will appreciate 'Badassium'."

"Yeah, yeah." Tony rolled his eyes, "Go be a good person. Don't worry about me I am an adult you know."

"I'll always worry about you." Lucy answered, thinking of a young Tony running around and wreaking havoc, "I can't help it. I need to go; I'll see you soon. Love you."

"Likewise." Tony sighed, "See you soon."

-sublimation-

Steve was a quick learner. After a few weeks in their isolated cabin, where they spent countless hours reading books and watching films, Lucy decided they should move back into the real world. With the help of Fury, they got a two-bedroom apartment in New York City. Their new home was a block from an old rundown boxing gym that now belonged to SHIELD, kept up for their exclusive use.

The hardest part of the adjustment period wasn't the amount of information. It was the frustration that things didn't come as simply as they should. But after only a few months, Steve was doing remarkably well. Lucy was proud of him. She remembered how difficult it was for her to integrate herself back into the world, and she was only asleep for 20 years. Her transition was abrupt and made on her own for the first few days. Steve was glad he had her. Without her assistance and support, depression would have most likely taken over.

The new world was so confusing. Everything was so fast paced and complicated. They had moments of nostalgia and sadness for simplicity what would forever evade them. But they moved on, the only way to survive was to adapt. So they embraced changes and learned from their mistakes.

Steve, like Lucy, disliked the progression of music. Gone where the sweet, soulful ballads that expressed the deepest emotions hidden inside dark corners of one's heart. No longer could energetic lively bands be found playing off one another or improvising along with the singer who scatted their away across the painting of a song. The brushing of a snare was lost along with the rhythmic plucking of a bass, making up the foundation of the time. But with the Internet, finding these lovely melodies was made simple.

What was most disconcerting was the ease of technology. Growing up in a time where everything was done by hand, it was a shock to find little machines accomplishing everything for you. It made one feel a bit incompetent. The things you could fill your life up with not having to wash the dishes, or search through a book, or cook food. Again, Steve picked up these things easily. It was the little things that bothered him now.

The minute references that were common in everyday vernacular. The slang that made English sound as if it were an entirely different language. Even with Lucy's patient aid, he felt like a man out of time. He missed the drive and purpose of the 40s. He missed feeling useful. He was a soldier without a war to fight. And Lucy saw that.

One day she brought home a sketchpad and a few writing utensils: pencils, pens, charcoal, etc. Taking his hand she led him out the door with an encouraging smile. They ended up in Central Park. It wasn't the best day, overcast and chilly; but it was a start. The acquainted feeling of thick paper under his fingertips, pens, strong and sturdy gliding smoothly across the blank page. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to draw. He smiled again that day, for the first time at something that wasn't her. And it warmed her heart.

His sleep schedule was still a little erratic, so they established routines. Early morning runs were the best. The two super soldiers felt alive when they ran. Blood pumping through their veins, air pushed and pulled through their lungs, their feet pounding the pavement. Time passed quickly when they ran. They also made good use of the boxing ring. Sparring brought out a competitive side that was hardly seen between the two. For all intents and purposes, they were evenly matched. Each lost about the same number they won, but no one kept track. The heat of a fight made them feel useful. It mimicked a time when they were needed.

They even started to venture out into the public. First it was just to the supermarket. Food was so much better these days. Fresher, sweeter, bigger and most importantly tastier. She even took him for fondue. But most of the time they cooked at home, playing around in the kitchen to old swing songs. She taught him to dance as their chicken burned, but it was worth it.

Mainly they talked. Him asking lists of questions and her spending hour after hour explaining the answers. Multiple times she would have to repeat herself because he would get distracted just watching her; but she obliged.

Their relationship picked up where it left off. They loved each other and that would never change. He was still the sweet and loyal boy from Brooklyn and she the passionate and resourceful girl from a few blocks over. The past couple months were spent just the two of them. It was blissful and challenging at the same time. Nevertheless they emerged a stronger unit than they had ever been. This was good, as they would need that strength in the coming weeks.

 _For the Tesseract has awakened. It is on a neutral world, a human world. They wield its power, but our ally knows it's working, so that they never will learn. He's ready to lead, and our force, our Chitauri will follow. The world will be his and the universe yours. And the humans, what can they do, but burn!_


	2. Radio?

It was a beautiful day in New York City. Warm enough to walk outside with or without a jacket but cool enough to expel the sweat from one's brow. Steve and Lucy had just come from shopping a few blocks over. She had bought him a brand new brown leather jacket. It would go well with the soon to be finished, vintage motorcycle they were rebuilding in their spare time. His expression when she had shown him pictures of the beat up bike had been priceless; he'd been so delighted. It was a complicated project they were trying to draw out so they wouldn't finish too quickly and have to look for something else to do.

Currently they were sitting at a little outdoor café, enjoying a nice cup of joe and basking in the nice weather. Steve had taken out his sketchpad and was drawing the angel statues on the building across from them. Lucy was reading the paper whilst finishing her coffee. Even with her advanced knowledge of technology, sometimes it was nice to feel the ridges of paper folded together, to turn the pages, and to see images that didn't move.

A blonde waitress walked up to their table with a fresh coffee pot to refill Lucy's cup, "Waiting on the big guy?" she inquired, noticing Steve's sketch.

"Thank you." Lucy smiled up at her, adding cream to her mug.

Steve looked up confused, "Ma'am?"

"Iron man." The attendant explained kindly, motioning toward the buildings behind her, "A lot of people eat here just to see him fly by."

"Right." Steve nodded, fishing out a few dollars to pay their bill, "Maybe another time."

"The table is yours as long as you'd like." The lady insisted, filling up Steve's cup as well, "Nobody's waiting on it. Plus we've got free wireless." She called over her should as she walked off to fill another customer's cup.

"Radio?" he asked after the waitress, looking to Lucy for answers.

Lucy grinned, shaking her head, "Internet." She explained benevolently whilst patting his hand.

-sublimation-

In the Mojave Desert at the Joint Dark Energy Emissions Lab, Western Division. Center for Project Pegasus under the authority of NASA and SHIELD…

"All personnel, the evacuation order has been confirmed. Proceed to your designated vehicles…" a robotic voice was blaring all over the project site, "this is not a drill. Emergency personnel, proceed to your designated vehicles for emergency evacuation."

The camp was as busy as a beehive at midday. Except for the agents and scientists running all over the place, it was the middle of the night. Every truck was loaded with people and equipment before squealing away in a long line of retreating vehicles. Lights were flashing continuously from every building, warning everyone of the alarm. Slight panic could be seen on every person's face except for one man. He wore a clean pressed suit and sunglasses, arms crossed in front of himself, patiently waiting for a black helicopter to land. As the wheels touched the ground the door slid open and out walked Agent Maria Hill wearing her standard black SHIELD uniform. As she stepped onto the pavement, ducking from the gust of wind from the propellers, she was followed closely by Director Nick Fury who stood slowly adjusting his signature trench coat.

Fury strolled over to the other two agents, "How bad is it?" he asked, cutting right to the chase.

"That's the problem, sir." Agent Coulson said, taking off his shades, "We don't know." The trio got into an elevator, which brought them down to the state of the art lab, "Doctor Selvig read an energy surge form the Tesseract four hours ago." Coulson notified the other two as they traveled down toward the emergency.

"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to pull the test phase." Fury noted, confused as they hurried around the corner.

"He wasn't testing it;" Coulson explained "he wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous advancement."

"It just turned itself on?" Hill asked skeptically, as she marched behind the two men.

Fury couldn't believe it, "What are the engine levels now?"

"Climbing." Coulson informed the others of the grave situation, "When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered evac."

"How long to get everyone out?" Fury inquired.

"Campus should be clear in the next half hour." Coulson responded.

Fury shook his head, "Do better." He instructed Coulson who nodded in response and filed away to follow his orders.

"Sir, evacuation maybe futile." Hill warned as she and Fury traveled down the stairs to the place where the cube was stored.

"We should tell them to go back to sleep?" the Director demanded, cynically.

"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy," She insisted, "there may not be minimum safe distance."

Fury ignored her, "I need you to make sure that the phase two prototypes are shipped out."

"Sir, is that really a priority right now?" Maria persisted incredulously.

"Until such time as the world ends," the Director spun around to face her, "we will act as through it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of phase two on a truck and gone."

"Yes, sir." She relented, passing by two guards she directed, "Come with me."

Entering the lab Fury shouted, "Talk to me, Doctor."

"Director." Selvig greeted, straightening from his observation of the tesseract.

"Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury continued.

"The tesseract is misbehaving." Selvig replied going to greet him.

Fury stopped in front of the Doctor, "Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No, it's not funny at all." Selvig replied seriously, "The Tesseract is not only active, she's…misbehaving."

"How soon until you pull the plug?" Fury queried.

"She's an energy source." Selvig explained, "If we turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level…"

"We've prepared for this, Doctor." Fury stopped in front of the cube, "Harnessing energy from space."

"We don't have the harness." Selvig countered, "Our calculations are far from complete. Now she's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."

Fury's head whipped around to stare at the Doctor, "That can be harmful." Looking around he asked, "Where's Agent Barton?"

"The Hawk?" pointing behind him Selvig answered, "Up in his next, as usual."

"Agent Barton, report to me." Fury called into the radio. When Hawkeye finally got down from his perch the Director continued, "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things."

"I can see better from a distance." Clint replied as they walked back over to the tesseract.

"Are you seeing anything that might set this thing off?" Fury questioned.

"Doctor, it's spiking again." One of the lab assistances called.

Clint shook his head, listing off what he'd seen, "No one's come or gone. Selvig is clean." He watched the Doctor go over to the assistant as they monitored the data, "No contacts, no IMs. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end."

Fury's gaze slowly turned from the cube to stare at the agent, "At this end?"

-sublimation-

Every night was movie night with Lucy and Steve. After a full day of learning and exploring the city, it was nice to sit back and relax. Lucy didn't find it necessary to rush Steve into anything, or to show him everything that he'd missed. He needed to know the important things, the most notable events and instances that were the most relevant to today.

Movies were a great way to do this. They could show a great deal of history in a short amount of time. She found out he loved documentaries; of course it would be something he enjoyed. But she did manage to coax him into watching some more mainstream pictures as well. They had already worked through the Lord of the Rings and Back to the Future trilogies, along with Harry Potter. Now she was showing him some of flicks that were referenced the most frequently. They started slower with Singin' in the Rain, From Here to Eternity, moving on to Monty Python, Psycho, the Princess Bride and the Disney classics. But tonight was his turn to choose unsurprisingly he chose a documentary.

The film played and the narrator's voice was lulling her to sleep. Her body was relaxed, stretched out on the couch as her head rested on a cushion in Steve's lap. He was absentmindedly playing with her hair; the delicate massage caused her eyes to flutter shut.

As the credits rolled she yawned, burrowing deeper into his chest. At some point during the night she had pulled him lower into the sofa when she had lost interest in the film and decided breathing in his scent was a better way to spend her time.

Steve stroked the side of her face, as he clicked off the television "Let's get you to bed." He chucked, amused at her endearing grogginess.

Lucy groaned in protest as he stood up slowly. Her arms wound themselves around his neck as he lifted her and moved to her bedroom. Nudging the door open he pulled back the covers and gently placed her on the bed, pulling up the sheets and tucking her inside. "Good night." He whispered as he placed a lingering kiss against her forehead.

"Night." She replied giving him one last squeeze before he stood and left the room.

-sublimation-

Clint nodded, "Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right?" he paused watching the Tesseract flicker with blue energy, then shrugging he finished looking at the Director, "Doors open from both sides.

"Oh shit." Selvig muttered to himself as he fiddled with the equipment.

The cube flashed again, this time bigger and brighter, catching the attention of Fury and Barton. The entire building began to shake; even Agents Coulson and Hill felt the vibrations from many floors above the source. The cube emitted pulses of energy, the lights swirling together until a powerful beam shot out of the Tesseract. The spear of energy intensified, forming a great blue portal into another universe. The streams of light grew up the high ceilings of the lab, becoming brighter and brighter until it burst sending a giant whoosh of force into every direction, the remaining swirls escaping upwards and outwards.

In the aftermath, a flaming crouched form was left in the burning embers at the end of the room. The agents began to creep their way forward, weapons at the ready. Rising from the ground, the man lifted his head to face the startled humans with a maniacal grin.

"Sir," Fury's voice ran out, "please put down the spear!"

The man lifted said weapon and shot a ball of blue power toward the agents. Leaping from the dais he attacked multiple agents. He was stronger, faster, and quicker than any of them, gunfire seemed to be useless against him.

Clint was just beginning to rise when the man strolled over to him, "You have heart." He said, before tapping his chest. The azure matter forced its way into Clint's body, from the spear, temporarily turning his eyes black before they changed to an icy blue. Agent Barton stood, now complacent, holstering his gun as he waited before his new master.

Fury watched the events unfold as he attempted to right himself. Seeing the unidentified man was distracted he quickly removed the Tesseract from the monitoring device and placed it inside a specialized briefcase.

"Please, don't." the man said as Fury was about to leave, "I still need that."

"This doesn't have to get any messier." Fury replied.

"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else." The man scoffed before introducing himself, "I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

Selvig looked up in recognition from his position checking out the dead agents, "Loki, borther of Thor?"

Loki rolled his eyes at the moniker. "We have no quarrel with your people." Fury placated him.

"An ant has go quarrel with a boot." Loki belittled the outmatched humans.

"You planning to step on us?" Fury demanded.

"I come with glad tidings," Loki paced among the wreckage, "of a world made free."

Fury regarded the madman, "Free from what?"

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart…" Loki tapped the spear against Selvig's chest as well, "you will know peace."

From above the Director, the excess energy was breaking apart the ceiling, tearing apart the infrastructure, "Yeah, you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other thing."

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling." Clint warned the Asgardian, "This place is about to blow, drop a hundred feet of raw material, he means to bury us."

"Like the Pharaohs of old." Fury jeered.

"He was right. He's right, the portal is collapsing in on itself." The Doctor called form the monitor station, "You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

"Well then…" Loki looked to Clint who in turn shot the Director. They left Fury and headed toward the exits.

Clint nodded to Agent Hill, "Need these vehicles." He gestured as the hypnotized men got in.

"Who's that?" Maria asked suspiciously, noticing the strangely dressed man.

"He didn't tell me." Clint responded.

"Hill, do you copy?" Fury yelled into his radio, "Barton is…" before she could hear the rest Clint let loose a volley of shots in her direction, forcing her to run behind the corner. When the shots stopped she returned with her own torrent but it was too late, they had already driven too far away.

"He's got the Tesseract!" Fury tried again, limping away from the dangerous contents of the lab, "Shut them down!"

Climbing in another car, Hill gave chase. The extra energy from the portal was growing and starting to destroy the facility. Pipes were falling and the terrain was trembling as if there was an earthquake.

On the other side of the camp Coulson and his men could feel the effects of the Tesseract, "Go, no, no, no… leave it! Leave it! Go!" He commanded, shooing away the agents from the fallen equipment. "Go! Go!"

Hill had caught up to Clint and Loki. Whipping her car around she hooked on to their front, causing them to push her vehicle if they wanted to move forward. Now in a good position, she fired again at the enemy.

"We're clear upstairs, sir." Coulson radioed in, "We're good to go."

Fury had just made it to ground level where he leap into the helicopter as it lifted off the crumbling pavement. And not a moment too soon, the enormous ball of energy finally grew too large. For a second it retracted into itself and the next it exploded, collapsing the entire base at once.

Coulson and his men made it out alive but the falling tunnel buried Maria's car.

Locating Loki's car, Fury started to fire upon it until another shot of energy blew up his helicopter. It spun to the ground and Fury jumped out of it at the last second, still trying to shoot the retreating vehicle.

"Director?" Coulson spoke to his communicator again, "Director Fury, do you copy?"

Fury picked up his radio, "The Tesseract is with the hostile force. I have men down. Hill?"

"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors." She sighed clambering out of her destroyed car.

"Sound the general call," Fury replied, "I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase. "

"Roger, that." Maria nodded.

"Coulson, get back to base." The Director continued gravely, "This is a level seven. As of right now, we are at war."


	3. What's In A Name?

1965

"Your files have you listed as: inactive. For all intents and purposes, you're still dead." Peggy told a blank faced Lucy. "We haven't told anyone you're still alive yet." Lucy didn't respond so she continued, "Do you want us to notify the government that you're alive?"

The trio was seated in a dark office down in the basement of SHIELD Headquarters. Howard and Peggy had just coaxed Lucy inside from beneath the tree they had sat under for hours, until the afternoon sky went black.

Lucy couldn't really hear what the other two were saying. It was as if she was trapped inside a glass box. All she could think about was how _he_ was gone. Noise came to her dull and distorted as were the rest of her senses. The silence stretched on for several beats until she finally whispered determinedly, "No."

Howard looked up from his seat across the table, "Are you sure?"

She nodded, "You two know I'm alive and that's all that matters." Lucy paused, gathering her scattered thoughts, "No one else can know about the serum, it's caused enough problems as it is. The world isn't ready for anything out of the ordinary." She finished bitterly.

Peggy consented sifting through her files; "You'll need a new name then." She remarked plainly.

"I'll use my middle name." Lucy countered.

"Marie?" Howard examined thoughtfully, leaning back in his chair, "I can't see you as a Marie."

Lucy glared at him, showing for the first time since the news about Steve, a flicker of emotion. He put his hands up in surrender, "Ok, fine. Doesn't matter to me, I'm still calling you doll, doll." She rolled her eyes.

"And a last name?" Peggy prompted, "I'll need to draw up some government papers."

Her fingers were tracing the wood grains on the surface of the desk as she pondered the question, "Rogers." Lucy replied decisively, nodding to herself, "Marie Rogers. Has a nice ring to it doesn't it?" she observed wistfully.

Howard and Peggy gave each other a look.

"Are you sure?" Peggy inquired softly, "You don't have to decide now…"

Howard agreed, "We can wait, do it tomorrow…"

"No." Lucy cut off their soothing declarations, slamming her palms onto the table, "If I can't have my own name, I might as well change it to something that can never happen." She scowled at the other two; "It doesn't matter anyway… not really." She continued, sinking back into her chair suddenly exhausted, "All the information is going to be fake, besides no ones going to believe I'm 45." She gestured to her 25-year-old looking physique. " _I_ don't even know how old I really am."

Peggy smiled sympathetically, "All right then, Marie Rogers it is."

Over the years, all traces of a 'Lucille Barnes' and her work on Project Rebirth slowly disappeared. She was just another casualty of the Second World War. To Howard and Peggy, when they were alone, she was still 'Lucy'. To her new friends, she was Marie. And bit-by-bit, the legends of Agent Zero began.

-sublimation-

Somewhere in Russia…

The day had just turned to dusk near the train tracks. A long chain of cars could be heard clacking along the tracks past an abandoned warehouse. Inside, the Black Widow was sitting, strapped to a chair close to the edge of a hole on the highest floor of the building. A beautiful chandelier lit up the room from the corner, casting a menacing shadow across her captors. They were all conversing in Russian.

The leader of the men was an older fellow, his white hair contrasted beautifully with the olive tone of his uniform. Looking to one of his goons he gave the tall dark man an order. Walked toward the red headed spy, the muscle man tipped her chair back, almost forcing her down several stories, ultimately to her death. Natasha breathed quickly, her toes searching for purchase on the wood floor.

They spoke again, trading jabs and prods in their native language. Having enough the man in the green suit ordered his lackey to force her mouth open, gripping her head in place.

Strolling over to an array of crude tools he picked up a pair of rusted pliers.

"You may have to write it down." The old man smirked at her struggling form. Suddenly, a cell phone rang.

The third henchman took the call, "Hello?" he handed the phone to his boss.

Speaking quickly in Russian the white haired man answered the line confused.

"You are at 114 Silenskin plaza, third floor." The man on the phone notified them, "We have an F-22 exactly 8 miles out." The men looked about the building, "Put the woman on the phone or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby." Walking over to the incapacitated woman the man shoved the phone between her ear and her shoulder.

"We need you to come in." Agent Coulson continued to her.

"Are you kidding?" Natasha replied, miffed, "I'm working!"

"This takes precedence."

"I'm in the middle of an interrogation!" she insisted, "This moron is giving me everything."

"I don't… give…. everything." The older man stuttered, affronted.

The Black Widdow rolled her eyes, "Look, you can't pull me out of this right now."

"Natasha," Coulson stopped her, "Barton's been compromised."

Her jaw tightened, "Let me put you on hold." She nodded to her captors. As the leader of the trio took back the phone she kicked him causing him to fall to the ground. Standing quickly she again kicked the other man and whipped the chair, still attached to her back, across the other. Rolling and hitting them a few more times she launched the chair on top of one of the men, breaking it and freeing her. Using the broken legs she hit the other man a few times before jumping on top of his, her legs wrapped around his neck and flipping him to the ground. As the two henchmen were disabled, she went back to the old man. Picking him up she wrapped his leg in a chain, secured it then pushed him off the balcony leaving him hanging by his foot.

Finished, Natasha picked up the discarded phone and her heels, "Where's Barton now?"

"We don't know." Coulson replied.

"But he's alive." She clarified, willing it to be true.

He was watching past footage of Strike Team Delta on a computer, "We think so. I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, we need you to talk to the big guy."

"Coulson, you know that Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me." Natasha responded walking out of the warehouse.

"No, I've got Stark." Coulson corrected, "You get the _big guy_."

She paused in her steps, "Oh, god." She exclaimed in Russian.

\- sublimation-

2012 Present day…

Steve was seated in the dining room, looking over a box of files SHIELD had given him on people he knew. Lucy had just run to the corner market for a few last minute ingredients they had forgotten to get to for their dinner. While she was out, he decided it was time to face the music. This would the first instance he would discover the status of any of his friends, besides Lucy.

The first few files were originals from the SSR, worn and faded with time. The papers were on the other members of his old team, the Howling Commandos. Jim Mortia, Monty Falsworth, and Junior Juniper were all deceased. The rest were still alive, living peacefully somewhere in the world. Next was Peggy. He grinned; of course that woman was still alive and kicking, 'Retired' it read. She now lived in D.C., maybe he and Lucy would visit at some point. Setting down her page he uncovered Howards. Large letters had been stamped across his pages as well, 'Deceased'. He sighed over the loss of another friend.

Underneath were two newer SHIELD profiles. The first was for Anthony 'Tony' Edward Stark, Howard's son, also known, as Iron Man. He had yet to meet the infamous man, but Lucy talked constantly about him. Lastly was a profile where most of the information boxes had been left unfilled. It was for 'Agent Zero' also known as 'Marie Rogers'. Steve stared at the page. Lucy's image was in the corner along with a few details that had question marks after them.

\- sublimation -

 **S.H.I.E.L.D. Profile**

 **Name:** Marie Rogers

 **Alias:** 'Agent Zero'

 **DOB:** Unknown; Active since 1965

 **Status:** Alive

 **Document Citizenship:** United States, others (?)

 **Place of Birth:** Brooklyn, New York (?)

 **Race:** Caucasian (?)

 **Gender:** Female

 **Title:** Consultant – Clearance Level Alpha

 **Height:** Unknown

 **Weight:** Unknown

 **Hair:** Brown

 **Eyes:** Blue

 **Languages:** English, German, French, Chinese, Russian, etc. (?)

 **Identifiable Markings:** None

 **Family:** None

 **Education:** unknown

 **Current Employment:** unknown

\- sublimation-

Keys jangled in the lock as the door to the apartment opened causing Steve to look up. Lucy walked in with a few bags, "Dinner is saved," she joked, placing the ingredients on the counter.

Steve picked up the paper and went to join her in the kitchen. "Lu," he questioned curiously, "why does your SHIELD profile have the name 'Marie Rogers' on it?"

She paused in her movements turning to face him, "I guess you would've found out sooner or later." Sighing she took the page and read it's contents. "Years I've known that man," she stated, referring to Fury, "and this is the best he can do?" she scoffed reading through the various question marked details, "I expected better."

"Agent Zero?" Steve urged, "Marie Rogers? What happened to Lucille Barnes?"

"I didn't want anyone to know I was alive." She replied simply, placing the sheet on the counter and going back over to her shopping, "Therefore I decided to change my name."

He followed after Lucy, "So you took mine?" he quipped, lightly catching her by the waist and turning her to face him.

Lucy didn't meet his eyes, her back against the counter as he stood in front of her, "I thought you were dead." She muttered, "I wanted something to remember you by."

Steve smiled touched by her admission, lifting her chin, "Miss Lucy Rogers." He breathed testing it out whilst waiting for her to look up, "One day, I'll make it 'Mrs.' if you'd like."

She blinked up at him, "Is that a proposal Captain Rogers?" Lucy joked, placing her hands on her hips.

He grinned in return, "Not yet, but it's a promise. One day…" he ducked to give her a peck on the corner of her mouth, "If you'll have me."

"Well, we'll just have to wait and see then. Won't we?" Lucy smirked, stretching up to kiss him properly.

-sublimation-

Somewhere in Calcutta…

A little girl ran though the crowded streets hurrying with a grave mission.

"Do not come here!" a woman warned, seeing the child at the top of the stairs, "Who are you? Go away. Here is a disease."

"Are you a doctor?" the girl pleaded, "My father did not wake up!"

Doctor Bruce Banner was currently washing his hands and face in a basin when he noticed the exchange. Trying to calm the panicked child he asked, "Like them?" pointing toward other sick patients.

"Please…" she held up a few bills.

Running to the outskirts of town she lead him to a little shack of a house. As he followed the child inside, she disappeared though a small hole in the wall. Pausing he realized it was a ruse to lead him away.

"Should have got paid up front, Banner." He scolded himself.

"You know for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress," a voice spoke from behind him, "you picked a hell of a place to settle."

Banner set down his satchel, facing the woman, "Avoiding stress isn't the secret."

"Then what is it?" she raised her eyebrows, "Yoga?"

"You brought me to the edge of the city," Bruce remarked, "smart." He looked through the open windows, "I uh…assume the whole place is surrounded?"

"Just you and me." she reassured him.

"And you actress buddy," he motioned off to the corner, "is she a spy too? They start that young?"

"I did."

"Who are you?"

"Natasha Romanoff." She introduced herself.

"Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanoff?" Banner clasped his hands together, "Because that's not going to work out for everyone."

Natasha shook her head, "No. No. Of course not." She placated him, "I'm here on behalf of SHIELD."

"SHIELD?" he muttered considering the name, "How did they find me?"

"We never lost you, Doctor." She informed him, "We've kept our distance, even helped keep some other interested parties off you scent."

None of this made sense to him, "Why?"

"Nick Fury seems to trust you." She shrugged, "But now we need you to come in."

"What if I say no?" he queried.

"I'll persuade you." The spy smiled.

"And what if the…other guy says no?" he nodded pointedly, referring to his alter ego.

"You've been here more than a year without an incident." Natasha countered, "I don't think you want to break that streak."

"Oh I don't every time get what I want." Bruce remarked bitterly, tinkering with a baby rocker.

"Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe." She continued, tapping at her phone.

Banner laughed, "Well, those I actively try to avoid."

"This is the tesseract." She slid the phone toward him, it displayed an image of the cube. "It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet." She continued sitting down at a table.

He took out his reading glasses, "What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?"

"He wants you to find it. It's been taken." She explained, "It omits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that's where I'd be." She finished leaning back in her chair.

"So Fury isn't after the monster?" he took off his glasses to better regard her.

"Not that he's told me."

Bruce scoffed, "And he tells you everything?"

"Talk to Fury, he needs you on this." Natasha tried again.

"He needs me in a cage?"

"No one's going to put you in a…" she started soothingly.

"Stop lying to me!" Banner yelled slamming his hands on the table, cutting her off.

The Black Widow jumped to her feet, aiming a handgun directly at his form.

Bruce retreated quickly, "I'm sorry, that was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do.

Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use that, and the other guy doesn't make a mess? Okay?" he put his hands up in surrender, "Nathasha?"

She watched him closely before activating her radio, "Stand down. We're good here." She notified the horde of SHIELD agents, guns at the ready outside the little hut.

"Just you and me?" the Doctor repeated back to her sarcastically.


	4. When a Good Man Goes to War

"This is out of line, Director." One of the World Security Council members sighed, "You're dealing with forces you can't control"

Director Nick Fury was currently in his office. On the wall in front of him were large screens each depicting a member of the council. They were currently discussing the situation revolving around the Tesseract and Loki.

"You ever been in a war, Councilman?" Fury questioned, "In a firefight? Did you ever feel an over abundance of control?"

"You're saying that this Asgard, has declared war on our planet?" the same councilman scoffed.

"Not Asgard." Fury corrected, "Loki."

"He can't be working alone." The councilwoman replied, "What about the other one? His brother."

"Our intelligence says, Thor is not a hostile." The Director defended, "But he's worlds away, we can't depend on him to help either. It's up to us."

"Which is why you should be focusing on Phase Two." A different council man persisted, "It was designed for exactly…"

"Phase Two isn't ready," Fury interrupted, "our enemy is. We need a response team."

The first councilman responded cuttingly, "The Avengers Initiative was shut down."

Fury shook his head, "This isn't about the Avengers…"

"We have seen the list." The third councilman commented.

"We're running the world's greatest covert security network and you're going to leave the fate of the human race to a handful of freaks." The second man belittled.

"I'm not leaving anything to anyone." Fury insisted, "We need a response team." The council was stubborn, but he continued, "These people may be isolated, unbalanced even, but I believe with the right push they can be exactly what we need."

"You believe?" the councilwoman questioned scathingly.

The first man agreed, "War isn't won by sentiment, Director."

"No," Fury relented, "it's won by soldiers."

-sublimation-

There were days that hit Steve harder than others, days that, no matter what Lucy did he was surrounded by his own personal cloud. She found it best to leave him alone on those days; everyone needed some time to themselves once in a while. So he went for a late night gym session by himself to the nearby boxing ring whist she made a long over due phone call. So she sat at the small dining table, laptop on, curled up in large fluffy blanket, waiting for her godson and his girlfriend to pick up the phone.

"Nice of you to finally check in." Tony greeted his aunt sarcastically.

"Tony!" Pepper admonished him, "It's lovely to hear from you, Arie. You have terrific timing, we're in the middle of a historical moment, Tony's just putting the finishing touches on it."

A large broke out upon Lucy's face the moment she heard their voices; it had been months since she had had any contact with the little rascals, "I've missed you guys too. How's the tower coming along?" she took a sip from the mug of tea she held in her hands.

"You're good to go on this end." Tony notified Pepper. "The rest is up to you."

Pepper checked her computer, "You disconnected the transition lines? Are we off the grid?"

"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self sustaining clean energy." Tony stated with a self satisfied smile.

"Well assuming the arc reactor takes over and it actually works?" Pepper replied sarcastically.

"It'll work." Lucy piped up.

Tony agreed, "I assume. Light her up."

Pepper adjusted the controls to turn on the tower.

"How does it look?" Lucy inquired picturing the building with all its shining lights.

"Like Christmas," Tony admired the sight, as he flew toward his newest creation, "but with more… me."

Lucy grinned, "Always so humble, Eddie. Then again what did I expect after you named it 'Stark Tower'. I'll need to come by to see it soon."

Pepper laughed, "You really do, Arie. Tony we've got to go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some press. I'm in D.C. tomorrow, I'm working on the zoning for the next three buildings..."

"Pepper, you're killing me." he cut her off, "Enjoy the moment. Remember?"

"Get in here and I will." she replied flirtatiously.

"And that's my cue." Lucy scrunched her nose; "I'll leave you two crazy kids to it, shall I? Congratulations on the tower, we'll talk soon, good night."

"Night." Tony and Pepper said at the same time.

As Tony landed on the edge of the tower JARVIS notified him, "Sir, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line."

"I'm not in." Tony dismissed as the robotics arms came out to remove his Iron Man suit, "I'm actually out."

JARVIS tried again, "Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting."

"Grow a spine JARVIS." Tony commanded walking into the Tower, "I got a date."

"Levels are holding steady…" Pepper remarked, "I think."

"Of course they are, I was directly involved." Tony scoffed removing his earpiece and throwing it haphazardly onto the desk, "Which brings me to my next question. How does it feel to be a genius?"

"Well, ha, I really wouldn't know now, would I?" she turned to look at him.

"What do you mean?" he gestured to the new building, "All this, came from you."

"No. All this," she pointed to the arc reactor in his chest, "came from that."

-sublimation-

As Lucy hung up, her phone rang again.

"Phil!" she greeted, "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"I need you to get my call through to Stark." Coulson spoke through the speaker.

"Can I ask why?" she replied confused.

Coulson sighed, "You'll know soon enough. Expect a visit from Fury within the hour."

Lucy sat up straighter setting down her cup, "It's that serious?"

"Marie, the phone call?" he reminded her.

"Of course." She pulled her laptop closer to her, gaining the Agent access to Tony's personal cell phone.

"While you at it," Coulson added, "maybe just let me up the tower. I think that'd be the only way he's listen."

Lucy rolled her eyes, "That's Eddie." Typing a few more commands into her computer she muttered, "Sorry JARVIS... There you go. You're in Phil. Now what should I be expecting tonight?" she finished taking another sip of the cooling liquid.

"The Director will have the details, but I'll see you soon." He answered.

"All right," she relented, "see you soon." And the phone disconnected.

-sublimation-

"Give yourself some credit, please." Tony smiled rubbing her shoulders, "Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself, twelve percent of the credit."

The happy look on Pepper's face melted off the second he said that, "Twelve percent?" she repeated.

"An argument can be made for fifteen." He backtracked.

"Twelve percent for my baby?" she replied incredulously walking away.

"Well, I mean… I did did do all the heavy lifting." Tony spoke at the same time following her, "Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you."

"Oh…" Pepper said sarcastically as she poured the champagne.

"My private elevator." He continued.

"You mean our elevator?" she corrected.

"It was teeming with sweaty workmen." He sat down taking a glass, "I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later on, aren't I?"

Pepper frowned, "It's not going to be subtle."

"I'll tell you what," he attempted to placate her, "next building its going to say 'Potts' on the tower."

"On the lease." She restated, going to clink their glasses.

Tony pulled back pretending to grimace, "Can you call your mom, can you bunk over?"

"Sir, the telephone" JARVIS warned, "I'm afraid my protocol's are being over written."

"Dammit, Arie." Tony muttered as he picked up his phone.

"Mr. Stark, we need to talk." Coulson's voice was sounding from the speaker.

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message…" Tony greeted the Agent as Pepper laughed.

"This is urgent." Coulson responded, not amused.

Tony rolled his eyes, "Then leave it urgently."

The elevator door to the penthouse opened revealing the Agent.

"Security breach." Tony noted sardonically.

"Mr. Stark." Coulson tried again walking from the elevator.

"Phil!" Pepper stood up to greet him, "Come in."

Tony looked at her, "Phil?"

Coulson nodded at the salutation, "I can't stay."

"Uh…his first name is Agent." Tony pointed toward the unwanted intrusion.

"Come on in," Pepper ignored his comment, "we're celebrating."

"Which is why he can't stay." Tony gritted through a fake smile.

Coulson held up a device, "We need you to look this over, as soon as possible."

"I don't like being handed things." Tony's eyes widened at the black rectangular object.

'That's all right, cause I love to be handed things. So, let's trade." She gave her glass to the Agent, took the equipment and handed it to Tony whilst taking his glass for herself. "Thank you."

Tony huffed, "Official consulting hours are between 8 and 5 every other Thursday."

"This isn't a consultation." Coulson replied seriously.

"Is that about The Avengers? Which I…I know nothing about." Pepper recanted.

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped," Tony called over his shoulder as he went to view look at what the Agent brought him, "I thought. And I didn't even qualify."

Pepper shrugged, "I didn't know that either."

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self obsessed, don't play well with others." He continued bitterly.

"That I did know." Pepper smiled at the agent.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." Coulson countered.

"Whatever." Tony said brusquely as he turned on the little computer, "Miss Potts, got a sec?"

Pepper sighed, "Back in a moment." She told Coulson.

"You know, I thought we were having a moment." Tony whispered to her.

"I was having twelve percent of a moment." She replied snidely.

He turned to give her a look.

She continued, "This seems serious, Phil's pretty shaken, and if he got Arie to hack him in it's got to be big."

Tony groaned, "How would you know this? Why is he Phil?"

"What is all this?" Pepper turned to look at the new information.

"This is uh… " Tony took the data from the pad and enlarged it across his wall of screens. There was video footage and profiles on all of the Avengers. Including information on the missing Tesseract. "This." He stared in disbelief at what SHIELD had just given him.

Pepper's jaw dropped, "I'm going to take the jet to D.C. tonight."

"Tomorrow." He insisted.

"You have homework." She shook her head finally understanding the gravity of the situation, "You have a lot of homework."

"Well, what if I didn't?" Tony persisted.

"If you didn't? You mean when you've finished? Well… um… then…" and she whispered in his ear.

Coulson looked away from the couple awkwardly, still holding his glass of champagne.

"Square deal." Tony grinned at her nodding.

Pepper beamed at him and leaned in for a quick kiss, "Work hard." She pulled away and walked over to the Agent, "So any chance you're driving past the airport?"

Coulson nodded, "I can drop you."

"Oh, fantastic." Pepper continued as the two stepped into the elevator, leaving Tony to his work, "Oh I want to hear about the uh cellist, is that still a thing?"

"She moved back to Portland." Coulson replied.

"What?" Pepper asked astonished, "Boo."

-sublimation-

As promised, within the hour, a knock came on their apartment door. Standing up, Lucy pulled open the entrance to reveal Director Fury.

"Nicholas." She greeted moving aside to allow him passage, "It's a bit late for a visit don't you think?"

"Agent Zero." He nodded at her, "This isn't a social visit."

Lucy sighed, "I thought as much. Does this mean you don't want any tea?"

A moment later they were sitting at the table, each with their own mug warming their hands.

Fury handed two black pads to her, "All the information you'll need is on there. I'll send some one to pick you two up tomorrow morning."

Lucy's head snapped up at that, "You need both of us? Steve too?"

The Director grimaced, "I'm afraid we're calling everyone in for this one."

"You mean the Avengers?" she clarified, opening up one of the tablets. Pulling up some of the documents she huffed, "This is going to be a long night." Taking another sip of the calming tea she motioned with her arm, "He isn't here by the way. He went to the old boxing gym."

Fury nodded finishing his drink and standing, "I'll stop by and tell him."

"Be nice." She caught the Director's arm as he passed, "He's having one of his darker days."

"Noted." Fury walked to the door, "I'll see you soon, Marie." He paused just as he was about to leave, "There is one more thing..."

"Is it worse than losing the Tesserct to Loki." She hummed in response downloading the information to her computer.

There was a beat of strained silence, before Fury continued, "Barton's been compromised." He admitted.

Lucy's face hardened as she turned back to the tablet now deadly serious, she waved good bye with a grim smile, "Good night, Nicholas."

The door shut softly behind him as she clicked the lock into place. Standing quietly for a moment she sighed and walked into her room. From underneath the bed she pulled out a large flat rectangular box. After typing in a code a fingerprint scanner was revealed. After her biometrics were confirmed, the lid clicked open. From inside Lucy pulled out an unmarked black protective uniform. Underneath that she took out two of her new creations.

When SHILED had called her down to Antarctica, there was something else they had discovered besides the frozen Captain. They found tiny deposits of an unknown metal. Studying it for weeks in-between the defrosting process, Lucy had dubbed it Anti-Metal, a variation of the Vibranium found in Steve's shield. The isotope produced a sort of vibration that broke down molecular bonds in other metals, causing them to weaken. In essence, with enough force it could cut through just about anything.

With a bit of tinkering, Lucy had fashioned the metal into two retractable forearm blades, which attached to her suit arms so she wouldn't lose them. When activated, they shot out of their specialized sheaths. The scabbard shielded their affects from other materials, containing the harmful effects. The knives also had handles where she could grip them as to better stabilize the blades, when opened they acted like a deadly extension of her arm.

Setting the matching weapons on her bed Lucy grabbed her regular personalized pistol and leg holster with extra bullets. Lastly, she considered taking out one more item. It was the tiny handgun Zola had given her all those years ago. She had never fired the weapon; she knew the destruction it could cause. But she had kept it for reasons she didn't really understand. Shaking her head, she left the firearm in the trunk and secured it, pushing it back into its hiding place. The Tesseract had created enough problems as it was.

Delicately running her fingers over the sharp blades she sighed, "This is not going to be pretty."

-sublimation-

Just as Lucy told him, Fury found Steve in the antiquated boxing gym. The super soldier was currently taking his frustrations out on a punching bag. Each strike grew more and more powerful until with one final swing, the bag of sand was launched across the room, spilling its contents everywhere.

Steve breathed deeply, finding himself back in the present day. Glancing at the mess, he simply walked over and picked up another bag, continuing on with his relentless training.

But he was interrupted by a voice from the corner, "Trouble sleeping?"

Steve looked up to acknowledge the Director, "I slept for seventy years, Sir. I think I've had my fill."

Fury approached the soldier, "Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world."

"When I went under, the world was at war." Steve unwrapped his protective bandages, "I wake up, they say we won. They didn't' say what we lost."

"We've made some mistakes along the way." Fury admitted, "Some very recently."

"You here with a mission, sir?" Steve noticed the file in the Director's hands.

"I am." Fury nodded, standing in front of him.

"Trying to get me back in the world?" Steve remarked.

Fury handed him the folder, "Trying to save it."

Steve recognized the cube, "Hydra's secret weapons."

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you." Fury explained, "He though what we think the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."

Steve handed back the manila folder, "Who took it from you?"

"He's called Loki." The Director sighed, "He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me." Steve scoffed thinking of the various months of lessons Lucy had already put him through.

Fury grinned, "How about a friendly wager then, ten bucks says you're wrong. A little habit I've picked up from our mutual friend." He nodded referring to Lucy. "There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment, I already gave it to Agent Zero. Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"

Steve grabbed his bag ready to go home, muttering as he turned to leave, "You should have left it in the ocean."


	5. Near Mint, Slight Foxing

Steve arrived back at the apartment to find Lucy pouring over the files Fury had mentioned. When she heard the door open, Lucy quickly stood from her blanket huddled over the table to give him a long awaited hug.

"I need to take a shower, Lu." He chuckled deeply, giving her a squeeze back.

Her arms tightened around his waist, mumbling into his chest, "I don't care." She curled closer to his form, giving him a wordless gesture of support. Looking up, she studied his tired face, "Are you feeling any better?"

He gave her a small smile, hands tracing up and down her spine, "A little." Nodding toward the table, filled with electronics he noted, "Fury told me was had an assignment."

She stepped back, releasing him; "I'll brief you after you wash up."

Steve walked back into the dining room after his shower, his hair still damp, now in his pajamas. Lucy picked up a tablet and motioned him to join her on the couch where it was cozier. She taught him how to use the pad and how to navigate its file system. A few hours later Lucy's eyes were drifting shut head resting on Steve's arm as he continued to read about his fellow 'Avengers'.

"You need to go to sleep, Lu." He gingerly roused her; "We've got a big day tomorrow."

"Hmm." She replied, here head snapping forward, waking up, "Oh, there's one more thing I was going to give to you." Reaching into her sweater she pulled out something he'd thought he'd lost a long time ago.

"Where did you find it?" He whispered picking up the worn compass from the palm of her hand.

"We almost missed it. One of the agents fount it in the wreckage of the Valkyrie." She watched as he flicked the tiny cylinder open, laying her head back on his shoulder. Her picture was still inside, and by some miracle it was perfectly preserved, "I thought it was time you had it back."

"Thank you." He grinned gripping it tightly and looking down to her, finally feeling more like himself for the first time that night. "I needed this."

-sublimation-

Even though Lucy was exhausted, she still greeted her friend with great gusto when he arrived to collect them the next morning. "Phil!" she beamed, embracing him as he stood waiting in his customary black suit next to a standard unmarked SHIELD car. When she finally released him she made the introductions, "Steve this is Agent Coulson. Phil meet Captain Rogers." She smirked at the flustered agent.

Steve held out a hand cordially, "Nice to meet you Agent Coulson. Lucy has told me much about you."

"Likewise." Coulson stuttered giving Lucy a slight glare, "We're on a tight schedule, Fury is expecting us." He ushered the two super soldiers into the vehicle. They were taken to a private landing strip where a small quinjet was waiting for them.

"We are 40 minutes from home base, sir." One of the pilots notified the Agent as they took off from the ground. Coulson stood up from his small communications console, removed his headphones and went over to speak with Lucy and Steve. They were occupying a bench in the back of the aircraft, looking over some of the files from Fury.

"So this Doctor Banner was trying to replicated the serum that was used on me?" Steve looked to Lucy for clarification.

She nodded, "A lot of people were."

"You were the world's first superhero." Coulson explained, "Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."

Steve frowned looking at the footage of the Hulk on the tablet, "Didn't really go his way, did it?"

"Not so much." Coulson agreed.

"They were never close. Not to the original anyway." Lucy added watching the video as well; "I checked out their formulas, gamma radiation was never part of the answer. But I didn't think anything like this would happen."

Coulson shrugged, "But he's got that thing though. Guy's like a Stephen Hawking." Steve looked up, confused at the simile; Lucy pointedly nudged the agent with her elbow, "Uh…" Coulson expounded, "He's like a… smart person." He finished lamely.

Steve looked away, puzzled as to why the agent was acting so strangely.

Lucy had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the exchange she could feel was about to happen.

Coulson cleared his throat, carrying on, "I've got to say, it's an honor to meet you, officially."

Steve gave him a polite smile whilst Lucy ducked her head to hide her giggles.

"I sort of met you. I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping." Coulson continued.

Steve's eyebrows lifted slightly as he averted his gaze from the agent.

"I mean," Coulson tried again nervously, "I was…I was present while you were unconscious… from the ice."

Taking a deep breath Steve stood to look out the front windows of the plane attempting to disrupt the awkward tension.

Coulson followed the Captain, trying to redeem himself, "You know, it's really, it's just a… huge honor to have you on board."

"Well," Steve nodded seriously, "I hope I'm the man for the job."

"Oh, you are." Coulson mimicked the Captain's position at the front of the quinjet, "Absolutely." He finished decisively.

Lucy grinned, "Tell him about the suit." She prompted the agent.

"Uh… SHILED made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input." Coulson exclaimed proudly.

Steve looked at them perplexed, "The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little…" he struggled to find an appropriate term, "old fashioned?"

Coulson sighed staring out the window, "Everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light… people might just need a little old fashioned."

-sublimation-

Looking out the window, Lucy could see they had finally reached their destination. She gave Steve's hand a quick squeeze as the small jet turned and landed on the, currently floating, Helicarrier. The pilots were following the directions of a runway attendant waving two orange indicators. As the engines powered down Coulson, Lucy, and Steve made their way out the lowering back door ramp. Entering into the warm sunshine and a deck bustling with activity, they came face to face with The Black Widow.

"Agent Romanoff." Coulson introduced the two, "Captain Rogers."

Steve nodded in acknowledgement squinting in the sunlight, "Ma'am."

"Hi." Natasha said, analyzing the super soldier before quickly turning back to the agent, "They need you on the bridge, they're starting the face trace." She notified him.

"See you there." Coulson left, heading toward the command center.

Lucy leaning in for comforting hug, "Nice to see you, Talia." She whispered.

"Ree." The Black Widow greeted with a tight-lipped smile, returning the embrace. Looking back to the Captain she addressed him, her face carefully blank again, "There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice." She told him as the trio began to stroll along the deck, "I thought Coulson was going to swoon."

"Oh, he did." Lucy smiled at the memory, "More than once if I remember correctly, he got it under control after the first day."

Natasha's stone face let a small grin through, "Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

"Trading cards?" Steve questioned in disbelief, he didn't know he had trading cards.

"They're vintage," Natasha smirked, "he's very proud."

"Hey, I helped him with those. Vintage…" Lucy scoffed from behind the other two, "They aren't that old. And if you must know, he just completed the set." She finished smugly.

Steve and Natasha both gave her similar glances of amusement. Looking ahead they spotted a nervous Bruce Banner, twisting his hands and looking about as lost as a needle in a haystack.

"Doctor Banner." Steve called out offering a hand in greeting.

Bruce looked up, "Oh, yeah. Hi." He returned the handshake. "They told me you'd be coming." Over Steve's shoulder he spotted Lucy, "Agent Zero is it?" he acknowledged her, "It's been a long time."

"A lifetime and a different name ago." Lucy smiled referring to their brief meeting, when she was undercover with an alias.

"Word is you can find the cube." Steve continued.

"Is that the only word on me?" the Doctor looked around at the various agents going about their duties.

"Only word I care about." Steve smiled, reassuringly.

Banner gave a tight smile, changing the topic, "Must be strange for you, all of this." He motioned to the high tech equipment all over the giant ship.

"Well," Steve observed the men, running in formation, "this is actually kind of familiar."

"Gentlemen, you may want to step inside in a minute." Natasha notified the others, "It's going to get a little hard to breath."

The Helicarrier started to make some groaning, adjustment noises, causing them to walk over to the edge of the deck, observing the waves.

"Is this a submarine?" Steve queried, watching the bubbling waters.

"Really?" Banner scoffed, "They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?"

The calm ocean waves were starting to disappear as large rotors could be seen, lifting the giant aircraft slowly into the air. Steve and Bruce stared, their mouths gaping as Lucy and Natasha grinned at their reactions.

"Oh, no." Banner continued sarcastically, "This is much worse." From behind and all around them, agents were securing all of the equipment, planes, and cargo. The giant Helicarrier lifted off rom the ocean. Water poured out of it in long streams and faint mists.

-sublimation-

Inside, Natasha led the other three to the bridge. The command center was a great room with an enormous front window. There were many layers and decks, each signifying the operator's position. Rows and rows of monitors curved around each other, resembling a circle around the Director's dais.

"We are clear." One of the woman agents notified.

"All engines operating. SHIELD emergency protocol, 193.6 in effect. We're at level sir." Agent Maria Hill looked up to the Director.

"Good." Fury nodded from his position at the head of the ship, "Lets vanish."

"Engage retro reflection panels." Hill commanded.

A moment later another agent confirmed, "Reflection panels engaged."

Fury turned around to greet the two who had never been on a SHILED Helicarrier before, "Gentlemen."

Steve walked up to him, eyes still wide in wonder and gave the Director a $10 bill before moving to study some of the data.

Lucy observed the exchange, "Placing bets I see?" she pretended to admonished them.

Fury looked over to her slyly, calling her out on her hypocrisy, "You're one to talk." He joked.

She grinned and shrugged in response.

"Doctor, thank you for coming." Fury turned to greet Banner.

Bruce nodded, "Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh…how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear." Fury assured.

"Where are you with that?" Lucy questioned as she observed some of the monitors with Natasha.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet." Coulson informed, walking to the middle of the lower floor, "Cell phones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, its eyes and ears for us."

"That's still not going to find them in time." Natasha noted as she and Lucy checked on the unknown status of Agent Barton.

"You have to narrow your field." Banner supplied, "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

"How many are there?" Fury said, looking around.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays." The Doctor replied, taking off his jacket getting ready to work, "I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?" he finished looking at the Director.

Fury nodded, "Agent Romanoff, would you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory, please."

"You're going to love it, Doc." Natasha stood to take the lead, "We got all the toys."

"Wait up." Lucy called, standing to follow as well, "I'll come help."

-sublimation-

Lucy reentered the bridge after a few hours. She and the Doctor worked well together. Bruce was a quite, kind, and intelligent man, perhaps one day they could be friends. She wished, not for the first time, there was something she could have done to help prevent the transformation that continued to haunt him daily.

"How's it going?" Fury asked, noticing her arrival.

Lucy walked deeper into the command center observing the SHIELD agents still hard at work, "We've got a potential equation. Bruce is running tests on it now." She told him before looking around the bridge for Steve. She found him standing to the left of the deck, next to Coulson. With a small smirk she lightly hopped down to their level, as not to disrupt them, trying to listen in on their conversation.

"…I mean…" Coulson was saying to Steve, "If it's not too much trouble." Neither of the men noticed her approaching behind them.

The super soldier reassured him kindly, "No, no. It's fine." His arms were crossed, slightly uncomfortable in a sea of technology he didn't quiet understand.

Coulson smiled excitedly, still giddy about getting his cards signed, "It's a vintage set. It took me a couple years to collect them all. Marie helped me with the rarer ones, said she just had them lying around."

Steve still found it slightly disconcerting when everyone referred to her as 'Marie'. But it did make him feel special that no one else called her Lucy, except himself.

"... Near mint…" The agent was still thinking about his cards, "…slight foxing around the edges, but…"

He was interrupted by Agent Sitwell's urgent notification, "We got a hit! 67% match. Wait," his computer beeped, "cross match, 79%."

Lucy moved to check on Steve, pacing her hand on his tense arm, he looked down and gave her a smile, reassuring her that he was fine.

Coulson walked over look at the monitor where cameras had picked up a match for Loki, "Location?" he requested.

"Stuttgart, Germany." Sitwell zoomed in on the position, "28, Canning Strasse. He's not exactly hiding."

"Captain, Agent Zero." Fury called as the two super soldier turned to regard him, "You're up."

-sublimation-

Lucy and Steve were standing in the back of another quinjet. This time Natasha and a different agent were piloting the plane. Lucy was tweaking the straps on his uniform, making sure Steve was entirely protected.

"Next time," Lucy said as she adjusted his helmet, critically analyzing the textiles, "I'm going to design your suit. SHIELD just doesn't have the same materials I use." She motioned down to her form fitting black outfit.

Steve swallowed, his mouth going dry as he studied her. He didn't think he had ever seen her wear something quite so… tight. "What's it made out of?" he questioned, his eyes snapping quickly back up to her face, trying to ignore the way the tailored material hugged her every curve.

"Bulletproof fabric," she listed, still inspecting the red, white, and blue, pulling and stretching to test it's resilience; not noticing his flustered state, "threaded with my own invention. A mirroring fiber that allows me to blend into my surroundings." She stepped back from him going to strap on her final accessories.

"It makes you invisible?" Steve asked, now intrigued.

"Not invisible, per se." Lucy clicked her sheathed forearm knives into place. "I'll show you." She pushed her clear safety glass onto her nose and pressed a hidden button on her collar. Suddenly she was gone, and yet she wasn't. If Steve looked closely, he could still see her figure. It was like looking at heat waves rising up from hot pavement. You could see a slightly distorted form if she stood still long enough, but if she moved quickly; you wouldn't be able to pinpoint her exact location. "Neat, isn't it?" Lucy smiled pressing the button again, deactivating the technology, "It took a while to perfect."

"How does it hide your face?" Steve queried, "Your uniform stops at your neck." He pointed to her bare head, covered only by the thin frames.

"The glasses help project the illusion around my head." She explained, "They're also embedded with a chip so I can target my adversaries better. Anyway the indiscernibility is helpful because I'm more of a close combat kind of girl." She grinned at his impressed expression, he'd never seen her suited up and ready for a mission, "It's also the same type of material I helped SHIELD make to disguise their Helicarriers. Converting it to fabric messed with its integrity a little. That's why it isn't a flawless illusion."

Steve stared at her in awe, "You're brilliant, you know that?" he stepped forward to give her a quick kiss good luck as she laughed.

"Arrival in 1 minute." Natasha warned from the front, "Better get ready."

"Don't forget this." Lucy turned to give him the shield she'd helped create a long time ago.

Steve hefted it in his arms, a familiar weight that had been gone from his side for far too long. Finally back in his element, he nodded "Let's go."


	6. Reindeer Games

Somewhere, deep in a covert underground laboratory, Doctor Selvig was in the process of developing the technology needed to create a portal stabilizer for the Tesseract. Currently he occupied the center of a whirlwind creation, people ran round him in circles, heeding his every wish and command. Their laboratory consisted of a pale rough stone, the walls of the chamber climbed up multiple feet, ending in a vaulted ceiling. Stolen metal, instruments, and other speciality supplies littered the floor of the workshop as a hodgepodge set of people was hustling around, setting up the larger tools. Tinkering with the unidentifiable unfinished device, Selvig directed to a few assistants who were in the process of bringing in more boxes, "Put it over there." He gestured to an unoccupied corner of the workshop. Glancing around the room, the scientist nodded, impressed with the amount of help they were able to scrounge up at a moments notice, "Where did you find all these people?" he looked to Hawkeye. Selvig's eyes still glowed with the power of Loki's scepter.

"SHILED has no shortage of enemies, Doctor." Clint answered shortly, typing away at a small handheld tablet. When he found what he was searching for he held up an image of a rare metal, beside it was pictured the scientist that could access the substance, he questioned, "Is this the stuff you need?"

"Yeah." The Doctor confirmed studying the element depicted, "Iridium. It's found in meteorites, it forms anti-protons." He explained, "It's very hard to get ahold of."

"Especially if SHILED knows you need it." Barton remarked bitterly reading about the facility where the Iridium was kept.

"Well, I didn't know." Selvig shrugged lifting both of his arms into the air, if he didn't even know he needed the substance, SHILED couldn't possibly know. From over Clint's shoulder, he could see the approaching form of Loki, the signature green clothing identifying the Asgardian as he stepped out of the shadows. "Hey!" the Doctor smiled, "The tesseract has shown me so much." Selvig stepped around Barton to proclaim excitedly to the man who made these recent understandings about the intriguing cube possible. "It's…it's more than knowledge, it's truth." The Doctor uttered passionately, in awe of his recent findings.

"I know." Loki smirked as he observed Selvig and his work in progress. Studying the other agent he had commandeered he queried, "What did it show you, Agent Barton?"

Clint turned around; he too still had electric blue eyes, curtsey of the mind control, "My next target."

Loki nodded, obliging the request, "Tell me what you need."

"I need a distraction." Clint listed as he walked over to his equipment case. Picking up his collapsible bow he flicked it open getting ready for his next mission, "And an eyeball."

-sublimation-

It was looking to be a wonderful evening in Stuttgart, Germany. The alabaster marble face of the museum was beautifully lit as various limousines and other expensive automobiles dropped off their even wealthier owners. Lush red carpets had been brought out to protect the soles of the upstanding attendees. Valets and attends rushed back and forth, providing for the every need of the important arrivals. Faint strains of classical compositions could be heard drifting out the highest windows from inside the tall building. The impressive string quartet moved in unison as their bows trailed gracefully across the taunt strings. Violins sang delicately, carrying the piece to every corner of the room as its inhabitance mingled politely with one another. Light laughter could be heard mixing with the sounds of chatter and the aroma of rich drink. Men and women, dressed in their finest regalia were called to attention as a microphone was tapped signaling the start of a speech made by one very important and get unfortunate doctor.

From the balcony above, unseen by the naïve civilians, strolled the comfortable figure of Loki. He was dressed handsomely, wearing attire fit for the day and age of the event he was attending. A long dark overcoat defined his figure similarly matching his usual wardrobe. But instead of princely Asgardian dress clothes he wore a multi piece suit, complete with a scarf and shiny shoes. In his hand he carried with him the scepter, disguised as a staff with a glowing blue end. Approaching the unwitting citizens Loki wacked his cane against the face of a security guard who had noticed him, rendering the man unconscious. The crowd gasped in astonishment as he turned to leer at the head Doctor in charge of the Iridium.

Taking the man by the neck he flipped him over a stone table which was made from the carved heads of two rearing horses. As the man landed on his back, Loki held down the doctor with one arm as the other reached inside his inner breast pocket. From there he retrieved a sharp menacing three-pronged device. Quickly stabbing it into the eye socket of the captured Doctor Loki clicked the top to activate the instrument sending the Doctor's biometric scan to Clint so the agent could access the elusive element. The audience ran screaming at the unexpected and sudden horror they had witnessed as Loki grinned. This was what he lived for, the power of control, how this one small action could affect so many. The supremacy he could feel swelling up, a rush flooding through the veins inside him had been missing for quite some time.

When he was finished with his little diversion, Loki exited the museum, now free to do as he wished. As he walked, the dark overcoat and scarf combination transformed into his emerald and gold battle armor complete with his horned helmet and cape. The staff converted as well, back into its original form as its owner slowly chased the terrified occupance from their mundane ceremony. Alarms sounded through the streets as an emergency vehicle was called to the scene. But their help was to be denied as a shot of azure energy from Loki caused the car to flip forward over itself, landing in its top, and sliding to a halt. The running and screaming increased as multiple forms of the God of Mischief appeared all around the square, caging in the panicked escaping individuals.

"Kneel before me." Loki commanded his voice going unheard, as the sounds of terror grew steadily louder. "I said." He pounded the scepter on the pavement, the stone flashed, causing every eye to turn to him, "Kneel!" he yelled, voice echoing across the open courtyard and reverberating through the air.

In its wake, a silence took over the petrified faces of the people as they fulfilled his order, kneeling before him. Raising his arms in acknowledgement Loki sneered, "Is not this simpler?" he questioned rhetorically, "Is this not your natural state?" He sighed blissfully feeling the full effects of the seductive pull of power. "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation." He belittled the humans as he walked through them, a god among men. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel." He finished his speech, high off the pleasure that came with asserting dominance over a lesser being.

From a few feet away one man started to stand. He was an elderly fellow; an individual who had seen plenty in his time to understand when enough was enough, "Not to men like you." He defied looking the Asgardian directly in the eyes.

"There are no men like me." Loki scoffed regarding this insubordinate creature.

The man clenched his jaw; "There are always men like you."

Loki raised his scepter, "Look to your elder, people." He aimed the magical blue power at the disobedient man, "Let him be an example." And he released a bolt of energy. Just as the shot was about to hit its intended target, it was deflected back at its owner, knocking Loki clean off his feet and onto his stomach, causing him to land disheveled and winded.

Standing in from of the elderly gentleman, was Captain America.

"You know," Steve strolled forward toward the indignant God of Mischief, "the last time I was in Germany" his voice deep with conviction laced with disgust, "and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing." He finished, glaring at the sole reason a war he had already fought was happening all over again. A war revolving around the troublesome power that was the tesseract.

"The soldier." Loki greeted snidely, planting his staff on the ground and rising from his sprawled position, "The man out of time." He laughed. Unbeknownst to the Asgardian, Lucy had landed behind him, the sound of her drop disguised in the noise of his fall. She now crouched a few feet away, watching in case Steve needed backup.

Cloaked by her suit she scrutinized the scene, hidden, as the two men interacted. She hadn't witnessed Steve in action as Captain America before this very moment. Of course, she had seen the video footage and the promotional pictures at some point, but she had never been physically present. Now here he was, standing before her fulfilling his duty, standing tall and proud. Defending the lives of those too weak to protect themselves.

She could feel her heart begin to race in an inappropriate reaction to something completely unrelated to the adrenaline she _should_ be feeling when at the cusp of a high stakes conflict. Her breathing hitched as she observed him confidently face his adversary. The wholesome love and adoration she always felt for Steve had turned darker, deeper, and more sensual as he spoke proudly wearing the colors of his beloved country. Even if his uniform wasn't up to the protective standards she was expecting, it fit him well, emphasizing the tamed strength and potential usually hidden beneath his, still 40s esque, clothes. A slight burning crept up the base of her neck as she admired his form before her attention was snapped back to the seriousness at hand.

"I'm not the one who's out of time." The Captain confided to Loki as the SHIELD quinjet appeared out of nowhere, its weapons fully loaded and trained on the bully, supporting Steve's claim.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down." Black Widow's stern voice rang out of the speakers.

With a blast from Loki's staff, another beam of bright blue energy was shot out, this time directly at the hovering plane. Harshly tugging on the controls, Natasha just barely veered the jet out of the way, its wing minutely missing the destructive energy. In response Steve threw his shield at Loki, it collided with his chest, ricocheting back into the Captain's waiting hand. As the large disc flying straight into him distracted Loki, he didn't see the soldier appear behind it until it was too late. Steve appeared with a punch that caused his face to tilt comically backwards. Growling Loki retaliated, hitting Steve a few times across the chest and shield with his staff, forcing him to duck away. From his position on the floor a few feet to the side, Steve once again flung his shield at Loki who batted it away as if it were an irritating yet harmless fly. Launching himself forward, the Captain swung his fist into Loki's face. Again he dodged while swiping his scepter through the air causing Steve to lean back, barely supporting himself against the ground as he evaded the attacks. In retribution, Steve landed a massive hit on Loki's side just as the staff found purchase across his entire back, flinging the super soldier into the pavement face first. Sauntering over to the felled Captain, Loki pushed the end of his staff against the back of Steve's helmet.

"Kneel." Loki commanded, towering over the hunched soldier.

Steve pushed away the staff in defiance; he jumped up and kicked Loki across the face, "Not today." He gritted out as Loki stumbled back.

"The guy's all over the place." Natasha mumbled into their earpieces. The men were fighting too quickly and too closely for her to fire an accurate shot, "You guys aren't going to be getting any back up from me."

Lucy nodded grimly in response, wincing as she watched Steve flung to the ground once again. The force used against him this time had been harder than all the others, causing his body to roll multiple times as he fell. "I've got this." She announced unable to stand and watch any longer. Lucy checked her cloaking mechanism to make sure it was still on before launching herself into the battle. Running up behind Loki she shouted to confused him. As he looked around to see where the noise was coming from she grabbed his arm, twisting her body as she clamped her legs around his face, avoiding the antlers, swinging so he handed on his back with her on top of him. He groaned, winded as she kneed his stomach keeping him down while simultaneously landing a few punches to his face. He sure could take a hit. Most men would have blacked out after one or two punches. Feeling around the air he quickly grabbed her arm and rolled her over. Then using his momentum, Loki flung her to the side, landing hard on a set of stairs causing her back to tense in protest. Groaning she moved to right herself, ready to enter the fight once more when the sound of AC/DC's Shoot To Thrill announced the ostentatious entrance of her godson. She rolled her eyes at his theatrics.

The jet's PA system was overridden as Tony's smug voice sounded across their radio, "Agent Romanoff," he saluted charmingly, "did you miss me?" Iron Man flew into the scene a streak of golden red light, firing a round of explosives across Loki's chest, knocking him into the same set of stairs Lucy was lying on. Landing before Loki, with all of his weapons aimed at the Asgardian, Tony threatened, "Make your move, Reindeer Games."

Lucy reached up to deactivate her cloaking technology. With the press a button, her figure flickered into view still sitting in the stone steps.

Steve stood up, grabbing his shield as he walked over to check on her. "Are you all right?" He kneeled besides her looked up and down her body searching for injures. She smiled at his concern, "Nothing I can't handle." She patted his arm before turning to regard the suspiciously docile Asgardian.

Loki raised his hands slowly in surrender as he eyed the Iron Man. His face weary as his battle armor faded back into his regular wear.

"Good move." Tony quipped, his plethora of weapons going back into their hidden compartments.

"Mr. Stark." Steve greeted as he helped Lucy to her feet.

Tony looked over to the couple making their way over to join him, "Captain." He nodded, analyzing the super soldier.

"Eddie." Lucy greeted with a sardonic grin, "Nice of you to show up, late, as usual."


	7. The Bard

Author's Note: First of all, thank you so very much to all of my fav/followers. And thank you to everyone who reviews. Now I would just like to make one thing very clear because I've gotten these comments quite a few times, I don't dictate how long a chapter should or should not be. I just follow the story and if a chapter feels like it should end because that is the end of a certain scene, then I end it there. Scenes in movies could last 10 seconds or 10 minutes and I am converting a movie into a written story, it's very confusing. The story decides it's own path, I am just telling it. Also I update almost everyday which is pretty frequent so don't worry about that. I love constructive criticism so if you have any comments about how I could improve my actual writing or improve the storyline, please I'd love to hear them. I also post directly after I write which means there is barely any editing, I am sorry about that. However, first and foremost I am writing this story for myself. I only post here because I know there are people like me out there who may not want to write things for themselves or don't have time but do like to read the work of other authors. Again thank you for reading my story, I only own Lucy, please enjoy.

-sublimation-

After the battle in Stuttgart, the weary rag tag group of misfits boarded the plane with their shiftily subdued prisoner. Lucy clapped a pair of specialized handcuffs onto the Asgardian she pulled from the back of her utility belt. With his hands now secured she led him up the back ramp of the quinjet, Steve and Tony following behind her. The astonished citizens behind them were left speechless as the plane speedily took off from the square. Inside, Lucy sat Loki down in the seat farthest from the front.

He studied her curiously now that her form was no longer hidden, "Aren't you a pretty one." He noted as she straightened before him, finished with the buckles. From behind her, nearer to the pilots, Steve's jaw tensed as he witnessed their interaction, "I take it you're the second super soldier?" Loki smirked eyes flickering to his reaction toward the other man's reaction, "You're quite impressive..." he complimented her, "For a human."

Lucy ignored his prodding, going over to stand with the rest of her crew at the front of the quinjet. Steve stood to the left, his back to Loki as he watched the progress of their flight. As she took her stance beside him, she nudged his elbow with her own, a question in her eyes. He gave her a quick smile that she returned, both notifying the other that there was nothing to worry about. Tony stood on her right on the other side of the plane watching the man in the back.

Turning his head, Tony beamed at his godmother, and then leaned over to give her a one armed squeeze. It had been months since he saw her last, one of the longest times they had been apart, "Pepper says hi." He greeted as he released her.

"Oh, I know." Lucy's right eyebrow rose in response, as she stood in front of him mirroring Steve's position, arms crossed body facing forward, "She also said to make your life 12% more difficult than I usually do."

"She told you that huh?" Tony hung his head sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Lucy rolled her eyes, "She tells me everything."

"I like your suit." Tony changed the topic, admiring the mirroring technology. He'd love to get his hands on that if she'd let him. The amount of work that would have been needed to develop that fabric was incredible, "Is that what you wear when you go off for weeks at a time? On your missions?" he clarified.

"It depends." She explained, observing Natasha and the other pilot's progress as they adjusted various buttons and levers, "Usually I'm undercover for information. I only wear this for combat, and such occasions hardly arise."

Tony nodded as a tense silence enveloped the rest of the cabin.

Director Fury's voice radioed through their comms, "Saying anything?"

"Not a word." Natasha answered as the trio standing in the back looked over to analyze their captive.

"Just get him here." Fury ordered, "We're low on time."

"I don't like it." Steve muttered to the other two as he glanced toward the suspicious Asgardian.

"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Tony scoffed, eyes still glued to the man in question.

Steve murmured, "I don't remember it being that easy." He adjusted his stance, feeling the ghost of several falls from their recent fight, "This guy packs a wallop."

Tony shrugged, "Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow." He sniffed, pointedly looking at the Captain. "What's your thing? Pilates?" he jested.

"What?" Steve questioned, not understanding the rapid change to an irrelevant topic when a more serious problem was at hand.

"It's like calisthenics." Tony explained cheekily, "You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a…" he raised his eyebrows, looking the older man up and down, "Capsicle."

Lucy's foot kicked out to nudge his armor-covered leg as she stared at him reproachfully. But Tony didn't back down, even though she knew he felt the jab.

Steve regarded the Iron Man, even through this was their first meeting, he already knew their relationship would be a trying one, "Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in." he fired back.

"Yeah, there are a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you." Tony retorted.

From outside the quinjet, streaks of lightning could bee seen blazing across the dark skies. Clouds rolled in from the previously clear night and thunder rang through the air.

Lucy looked up her face confused before comprehension dawned on her, "Oh boy." She sighed turning her head to regard the similar expression crossing over Loki's face.

"Where's this coming from?" Natasha questioned, voicing the question running through all of their minds.

Steve looked over to Lucy and seeing her line of vision his gaze trailed past her to see the object of her scrutiny, "What's the matter?" he questioned their apprehensive captive, "Scared of a little lightning?"

Loki spared the agents a quick glance, fingers tightly gripping the harness that held him in, before looking back up at the skies, "I'm not overly fond of what follows." He said waiting expectantly.

"Oh come on." Lucy groaned as a clap of lightning hit the top of their plane, shaking the entire structure. She reached out to grasp something, anything to balance herself through the turbulence as her fellow companions did the same. Natasha fought against the untamable winds as the trio in the back righted themselves. Steve went for his shied and Tony for his helmet. Iron Man walked toward the back entrance, lowering the ramp as he passed.

"What are you doing?" Steve demanded as the cold air blasted its way into the cabin.

From the brewing storm clouds surrounding their tiny plane dropped Thor Odinson, the God of Thunder. Landing on the ramp he stood, blood red cape flapping in the gale, causing everyone's eyes to widen in astonishment.

"Thor!" Lucy tried to communicate with the newly arrived Asgardian to no avail, her call lost in the gust. He knocked Tony back with a single swipe of his trusty hammer and broke the seat beat holding Loki. Gripping his brother by the neck he turned, whipping his mallet in flight and exited the quinjet. The agents stared after him in disbelief, all their hard work on capturing Loki, obliterated within a few seconds.

Tony huffed standing up after being knocked down like a rag doll, "And now there's that guy."

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha yelled from her seat, trying to control the unstable aircraft.

Steve looked around, "Think the guy's a friendly?" he questioned.

"He is." Lucy rolled her eyes at the events that had just unfolded.

"Doesn't matter," Tony continued, walking toward the still open ramp, "if he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract is lost."

"Stark, we need a plan of attack." Steve sternly called after his retreating form.

"I have a plan." Tony countered sparing one last glance back at them, "Attack." Then he flew off to peruse the disappearing Asgardians.

Lucy and Steve shared a look before concurrently going to grab parachutes from the row conveniently located on the side of the plane.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap." Natasha warned as she adjusted a few levers.

Steve replied, shaking his head, "I don't see how we can."

"These guys come from legend." Black Widow tried again, "They're basically gods."

"It's all right, Talia." Lucy calmed her friend as she too prepared for the plummet, "Besides, Nicholas would kill us if we lost Loki." shoving her glasses on to her face and she checked her weapons before walking toward the back door.

"There's only one god, ma'am." Steve continued, buckling the parachute backpack and grabbing his shield, "And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." He finished before jumping out of the plane.

With a running start, Lucy followed him leaping into the air. The wind hit her like a thousand cold sheets slapping her face infused with the darts of rain that speckled her descent into the forest below.

-sublimation-

Loki landed with a grunt on a stone outcropping, "Thor." He greeted his brother with a pained laugh.

"Where's the Tesseract?" Thor commanded, skipping the pleasantries.

Loki chucked, "Oh, I've missed you too." He replied satirically.

Thor bristled, "Do I look to be in a gaming mood?"

"Oh, you should thank me." Loki sat up, "With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the All-Father have to muster to conjure you here? Your precious earth." He spat bitterly.

Thor dropped Mjolnir with a resounding thump, "I thought you dead." He grasped his brother by the arm.

"Did you mourn?" Loki blankly stared back.

"We all did." Thor insisted, "Our father…"

Loki stopped him with a finger, "Your father." He corrected shoving his way out of Thor's grasp, "He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?"

Thor watched Loki limp away, "We were raised together. We played together, we fought together." He persisted, hurt by the emotionless shell his beloved brother had become, "Do you remember none of that?"

"I remember a shadow." Loki responded inconsolably, "Living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I who was and should be king!"

"So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?" Thor motioned as he followed the God of Mischief, "No, the earth is under my protection, Loki." He finished harshly.

Loki laughed, "And you're doing a marvelous job with that." He replied mockingly listing the many faults of the world of man, "The humans slaughter each other in droves, while you idly fret. I mean to rule them. That's why should I not…"

Thor interrupted his rambling with an accusation, "Think yourself above them."

"Well, yes." Loki admitted unapologetically.

"Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother." Thor persisted, coming closer; "A throne would suit you ill."

Loki seethed, pushing past his brother, "I've seen worlds you've never known about. I have grown, Odinson," he insulted, "in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract. And when I wield it…"

"Who showed you this power?" Thor cut him off, concerned. "Who controls the would be king?"

"I am the king!" Loki yelled.

Thor gripped his shoulder, trying to shake sense into him, "Not here! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!" he sighed, "You come home."

Loki shook his head, "I do not have it."

Thor's eyes widened as he backed away, raising his hand to call Mjolnir. Anger took over as he prepared to strike.

"You need the cube to bring me home, but I've sent it off." Loki continued smugly, "I know not where."

Thor leveled his hammer at Loki; "You listen well, brother…" he started before a flash of red gold marked the entrance of Iron Man, knocking Thor off the rock precipice and interrupting his speech.

Loki looked around at the stillness, waiting, "I'm listening."

"Do not touch me again." Thor commanded as she stood up, shaking off various debris from his landing in the underbrush.

Iron Man's helmet opened, "Then don't take my stuff."

Thor shook his head seriously, "You have no idea what you're dealing with."

"Uh…Shakespeare in the park." Tony looked around at the tall trees surrounding them, "Doth mother know, you weareth her drapes?" he gestured to the strange outfit of the other man.

"This is beyond you, metal man." Thor ignored the jab, "Loki will face Asgardian justice."

Tony responded determinedly, "He gives up the cube and he's all yours. Until then," his armor clicking back into place, "stay out of the way. Tourist." He scoffed walking away.

"AGGHHH!" Thor yelled, throwing Mjolnir into the Iron Man's back.

"Okay." Tony growled out now incensed, sitting up he blasted Thor in the chest just as his hammer returned to him, knocking him into a tree. Flying into the air, Tony kicked the god in the chest snapping the tree trunk in half as if it were a twig.

Calling Mjolnir back to him, Thor summoned more lightning before shooting it at the Iron Man.

"Power at 400% capacity." JARVIS notified his creator.

Tony nodded impressed, "How about that." He remarked before retaliating against Thor. Both of them flew into the air soaring over acres of forest before colliding with the mountainside. The slid up the rock face, before shooting back into the dense trees, knocking down one after the other in their struggle. Back on the ground they rolled to a stop before engaging each other again. Thor gripped the metal forearms of the Iron Man suit, breaking away the technology before Tony blasted him in the face with the palm reactor.

The fight went on for a few more minutes from what Lucy could see as she floated down to their level. Spotting Loki on the mountainside she angled her descend to land behind him, the only one remembering to keep an eye on their prisoner. After she packed up her parachute she stood next to the God of Mischief, waiting for the hotheaded men to cool off.

"Hey!" Steve yelled, throwing his shield between Thor and Iron Man, breaking apart their fight. It bounced off their weapons returning to his hand. "That's enough!" he ordered sternly, jumping down from his perch on top a broken tree stuck at a high angle, "Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here…" he began.

"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes." Thor interrupted.

"Then prove it." Steve tried to mollify the situation, "Put that hammer down."

"Uh…yeah no. No, bad call." Tony quipped, "He loves his hamme-" he didn't finish his statement as Thor backhanded him into another tree with Mjolnir.

"You want me to put the hammer down?" Thor roared, leaping high into the air, arm outstretched ready to strike the super soldier. Steve crouched in response, his shield raised high to deflect the blow. As Mjolnir came down upon the vibranium, an energy blast of magnificent proportions rippled out from the point of contact. Enormous trees fell down in every direction from the source of the hit, unable to escape or support themselves against the force pressing against them. It was an instantaneous event that was over within a second, throwing Thor back from Steve and keeping Tony on the ground under a pile of branches. In the newly created field, the trio of men stood up slowly viewing their destruction.

"Are we done here?" Steve huffed, picking himself of the ground.

Lucy's faint voice carried over to them from her far off position, "As entertaining as this is," she drawled, tapping her foot impatiently, "I think you boys might have forgotten something." She finished, clapping the handcuffs back onto an amused Loki.

-sublimation-

When the quinjet landed back on the Helicarrier, a plethora of guards arrived to march Loki away. Steve turned back as he exited the plane, looking for Lucy. She was lingering behind watching Natasha. "Go on," she beckoned him, "I'll be down in a minute."

He nodded, "I'll wait for you inside." Before stepping onto the blustery deck of the massive aircraft.

The Natasha finished with the last few steps of her routine, shutting down and securing the jet. Looking up she spotted Lucy lingering in the cabin, long overdue for a heart to heart chat.

"We'll find him, Talia." Lucy comforted her friend. They shared similar feelings of worry and anger over the still missing agent, but she knew the Black Widow was hurting more in this moment.

Natasha grimaced in a race display of emotion, "We were going to have a few days vacation together after our long missions. I haven't seen him in almost a year."

Lucy stepped forward to envelop the grieving spy in a motherly hug, stroking her vivid red hair. In her mind she relived the same pain when she had found out Steve had died, "I know." She hushed Natasha's dry sob, "I know. We'll get him back." Lucy promised, tears pricking in her own eyes, "No matter what, we'll bring him home. Tell you what," she grasped Natasha's shoulders, "I'll bet you we get him back within the next two days," The SHIELD agent laughed while Lucy grinned, "you know I always win."

-sublimation-

Leaving the Black Widow to collect herself, Lucy made her way along the winding hallways toward the command center. Just as she passed a corner a hand reached out and spun her around. Her body tensed, ready for a fight when a familiar homey scent washed over her. "Don't scare me like that." She admonished quietly, smacking Steve lightly across his arm, "I was about to pull my knives on you."

He chuckled as they moved deeper into the dark alcove, "I just wanted to make sure you were all right." He stroked her cheek softly.

She stepped forward, face nuzzling into his hand as she snaked her arms around his waist, "I'm fine." She placated him, "What about you? You took some harder hits than I did."

"It's been awhile." He muttered leaning down to embrace her smaller form, head resting on top of hers.

After a moment where they relaxed in each other's presence, Lucy reached up to plant a kiss on the underside of his jaw, "Let's go." She threaded her fingers through his, "I'm sure we're needed on the bridge."

"Wait," Steve pulled her back to capture her lips in a fervent kiss, "I love you." He whispered, breathing heavily. "If anything happens, I need you to know that."

Lucy smiled, mind blissfully blank after the embrace, tucking a stray blonde hair into his combed style she replied, "As I love you." She playfully bopped his nose, a grin spreading across his face, "Don't worry, nothings going to happen, not when we have Captain America protecting the world again." she lightly elbowed his stomach with her arm. Looking him up and down she continued, "I meant it, you know, all those years ago."

Steve furrowed his brows confused, "Meant what?"

"That I loved you." She said, sincerely, "Even before the serum. A long time before the serum. That I'd choose Steve Rogers over the great Captain America."

He lifted her hand up to his lips, kissing her palm, "As I would choose Lucy Barnes over all other variations of Agent Zero."

-sublimation-

"Lady Zero!" Thor's thunderous greeting echoed about the bridge as Lucy and Steve approached the meeting table joining the rest of the Avengers, "I am glad to see you well."

"It's nice to see you too Thor." She waved, sitting down in a chair Steve pulled out for her.

"Do you know how fares Jane?" the God of Thunder continued, concerned for the human he left behind more than a year ago.

Lucy smiled, "Last I heard she was doing well. Moved to London I think for some kind of research." She kindly notified the Asgardian who nodded grateful for the news. The two women had become acquaintances, along with Darcy, when Lucy helped set back up the lab SHILED had taken from them in New Mexico.

"Here we go." Agent Maria Hill called out from her station as video footage of Director Fury and their once again captive, Loki, appeared on screen. Fury stood outside an cylindrical glass cage which housed the curious God of Mischief.

"In case it's unclear," the Director secured the prison, "you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass." He pressed a button and suddenly the floor under cage opened, wind swirling into the Helicarrier, "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? Ant." He gestured to Loki, "Boot." He gestured to the control pad.

Loki merely laughed, "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury conceded.

"Oh, I've heard." Loki smirked, "The mindless beast, makes play to be the man. How desperate are you? You call on these lost creatures to defend you."

"How desperate am I?" the Director scoffed, "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh." Loki mocked, "It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."

Fury rolled his eyes as he walked away, "Well let me know if real power wants a magazine or something."


	8. Wicked Witch of the West

Back on the bridge the video footage cut out and everyone lapsed into silence, lost in their own thoughts. Lucy, Steve, and Natasha were seated at the conference table as Bruce, Thor, and Maria stood near by.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?" the Doctor remarked humorously.

"Loki's going to drag this out." Steve considered as he removed his hand from his chin, "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri, that none of Asgard nor any world know." Thor turned to face the others; "He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army." Steve repeated dryly, looking from one person to another, "From outer space."

Lucy sighed in exasperation, rubbing her temple, "The world only grows more and more complicated, doesn't it?"

"So he's building another portal." Bruce thought out loud as he paced, "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor questioned, looking up at the familiar name.

Bruce nodded, "He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend." Thor corrected.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha added bitterly.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him." Steve continued logically, "He's not leading an army from here."

Doctor Banner jumped in, "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell the crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak." Thor warned him, "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother."

Natasha blinked stone-faced, "He killed eighty people in two days."

Thor hesitated, "He's adopted."

Bruce continued, "I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what did they need Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony answered loudly, walking into the command center now dressed in a fine dress suit, before turning back to Coulson to finish their whispered conversation.

Lucy rolled her eyes, "Means the portal won't collapse in on itself, like it did at SHIELD." She explained to the confused individuals.

"Precisely." Tony agreed moving past Thor and patting his arm, "No hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing." He stopped at Director Fury's station, "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Looking around the bridge he pretended to be captain, "Raise the mizzenmast, jib the topsails!" he commanded to the incredulous SHIELD agents. "That man is playing Gallaga." He tried to recover, "He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Lucy face palmed as everyone else looked around.

"How does Fury even see these?" Tony spun around, cupping one eye.

Agent Hill answered simply, "He turns."

Tapping a few of the screens Tony remarked, "Sounds exhausting." Hiding a chip below one of the monitors he continued, "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

Maria stared the genius, "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" she questioned sarcastically.

"Last night." Tony shrugged, "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers? Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Four for you, Eddie.*" Lucy grinned, "First time you actually did your homework."

Steve ignored her slightly confusing comment, "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

"He'd need to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Lucy supplied.

Tony countered, strolling over toward her, "Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well," Bruce considered, "if he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally!" Tony beamed, "Someone besides Arie who speaks English.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve questioned quizzically.

"It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner." Tony shook Bruce's hand, "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

"Thanks." Bruce replied skeptically.

Fury finally reentered the bridge, "Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube, I was hoping you two might join him." He nodded to Lucy and Tony.

"I'd start with that stick of his." Steve suggested, "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapons."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube." Fury contributed indignantly, "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor paused, "I do not understand."

"I do!" Steve asserted proudly. The rest of the group rolled their eyes. "I understood that reference." He added quieter looking over to Lucy who patted his hand encouragingly before moving to stand.

"Arie?" Tony called, before turning to Bruce, "Shall we play, Doctor?"

Banner nodded gesturing to the lab, "This way, Sir, Ma'am."

As she made to leave Lucy yelled to nobody in particular, "Try killing all of the aliens except the two blue ones on the far left side. * It might help." She finished as the door shut behind the trio of scientists.

The rest of the bridge exchanged perplexed glances over the comment from the eccentric woman. All except for the man in the corner who clicked on a minimized screen, bringing back up his game of Galaga and taking her advice.

-sublimation-

Before following Tony and Bruce, Lucy made a quick stop off to the mess hall to grab a few snack pouches. As the door to the laboratory slid open she entered into their conversation, whilst popping a few blueberries into her mouth.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract." Banner was saying as he waved an instrument over Loki's scepter, "But it's going to take weeks to process." He lamented reading the monitor.

On the other side of the room, Tony fiddled with the equipment he brought, "If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops."

"All I packed was a tooth brush." Bruce chuckled, taking notes on his findings.

Lucy strolled over toward Banner, leaning on the table as she read the data over his shoulder.

"You know," Tony remarked as he walked over toward the doctor, "you should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors are all R&D. You'd love it its candy land."

"Thanks," Bruce smiled sheepishly, "but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke Harlem."

"Well, I promise a stress free environment." Tony promised, "No tension. No surprises." He suddenly jabbed Banner with a pointy object.

Bruce jumped, "Ow!" he rubbed his side, looking over in disbelief at the other man.

"Nothing?" Tony scrutinized the Doctor.

Lucy's jaw dropped, "Eddie!" she reprimanded, cuffing the back of his head lightly before sighing and passing him a bag of blueberries.

"Hey!" came a shout from the door. Looking over she saw Steve stride into the lab, "Are you nuts?" he questioned Stark.

"Jury's out." Tony shrugged before turning back to the Doctor, "You really have a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret?" he rattled off quickly, "Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

Steve's brow furrowed in frustration, "Is everything a joke to you?" he demanded.

Pointing the same stick he used against Banner at the Captain, Tony admitted, "Funny things are."

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Steve's eyes flickered protectively toward Lucy, "No offense, Doctor." He apologized.

Bruce waved off the assurance, "No, it…it's all right. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." He laughed.

"You're tiptoeing, big man." Tony thanked Lucy for the fruit, "You need to strut." He called back toward Banner.

Steve clenched his jaw, "And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark."

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now?" Tony walked back over toward Steve and the Doctor, "Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury is hiding something?" Steve concluded.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's _the_ spy. Well, I mean, maybe second to Arie here." Tony nodded to his aunt, "I can't find anything on her in any database on the planet, and that's not for lack of trying." He shook his head trying to get back on topic, "His secrets have secrets. Its bugging him too, isn't it?" Tony nodded over to Banner, tossing a few of the berries into his mouth.

"Uh, I just want to finish my work here and…" Bruce hesitated.

"Doctor?" Steve encouraged.

Bruce sighed taking off his glasses, "'A warm light for all mankind', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

Steve nodded, "I heard it."

"Well, I think that was meant for you." Bruce motioned to Tony who in turn offered the Doctor some of his snacks. Bruce thanked him, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it's still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower?" Steve clarified, "That big ugly…" Steve paused as Lucy cleared her throat; "building in New York?" he finished as Tony stared at him.

Bruce continued, "It's powered by an ark reactor, a self sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what a year?" he looked to the building creator.

Tony agreed, "That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

"So why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce concluded, "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files." Tony checked his phone's progress.

Steve raised his eyebrows, "I'm sorry, did you say…"

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge." Tony interrupted, "In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" he held out the silvery sack nonchalantly.

Steve belittled, "Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?"

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically not awesome." Tony smiled snidely, "Besides I'm not normally the hacker, that's usually my godmother." He nodded toward Lucy who was standing quietly in the corner, "Yet, she's there and I'm digging for answers. So what do you know Arie that you're not telling us?"

Lucy straightened, thinking back to more than a year ago to a particularly difficult week. Listening to the trio of men argue she had finally figured out what Fury was hiding. Her mind remembered the project he had asked her about and she hesitated to be a part of. Calmly she replied not really answering the question, "I don't control SHIELD and I don't spend every waking minute monitoring them." She shrugged, "Besides I've been completely off the grid for the past few months."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up." Steve declared he believed if Lucy knew something she'd tell them, "This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

Tony shook his head, "Following is not really my style."

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve criticized.

"Of the people in this room, which one is: A, wearing a spangly outfit; and B, not of use?" Tony taunted.

"Steve," Bruce appealed, "tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

"Just find the cube." Steve ordered, turning to exit the lab, tired and confused by their comments.

"Wait!" Lucy called, setting down her snacks as she went to follow him.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Tony scoffed, "Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice." He finished muttering.

Turning back just as she reached the door Lucy rounded on her godson, "Anthony Edward Stark!" she poked a finger accusingly into his chest, "You and I are going to have a conversation later that you will not enjoy. Steve is a good man and your father learned a great many things from him, things that would benefit you to learn as well. Do not make me lock JARVIS from you again because I swear to god I will do it." She gave him a glare as he nodded, gulping in response to her anger. "Good." marching back to the sliding door she went after the super soldier, "Steve!"

Bruce stared after the irritated agent; "She's your godmother?" he looked over to the shaken billionaire.

"Only 'parent' I have left. Scariest woman alive she is." Tony shivered, "I shouldn't have said that." He remarked a tad remorseful; "She's been waiting on the Capsicle for almost 70 years."

"They're together?" Bruce looked up at the information, "That must have been some wait." He whispered softly, feeling sorry for the pair of super soldiers.

"Hmm." Tony agreed watching the door Lucy had just disappeared from, "She was always so lonely. She hid it of course, quite well. But people always forget just how observant children are." He thought back to his youthful memories, watching his aunt's face change from a smile to a frown when she thought he wasn't looking.

"At least she's happy now. That's good right?" Bruce said, thinking to his brief interactions with the mysterious agent prior in the day. "She seems like the kind of lady who knows what she wants and gets it. Steve makes her happy, I'm sure you'll understand what she sees in him one day."

Tony protectively regarded the recently recovered super soldier's relationship with his, for all intents and purposes, mother, "Maybe." He relented.

Bruce shook his head, understanding why Stark had such an intense dislike for Steve, more so than was expected when two people with conflicting personalities interacted. "The guy's not wrong about Loki, he does have the jump on us."

"What he's got is an acme dynamite kit." Tony scoffed, "It's going to blow up in his face and I'm going to be there when it does."

"I'll read about it." Bruce adjusted a few controls on a monitor hanging form the ceiling, sending a file to Tony with a flick of his wrist.

"Uh huh." Tony countered, "Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us."

Banner scoffed self decrepitatingly, "You see, I don't get a suit of armor." He paused in his amendments, "I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare"

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This stops it." Tony tapped his arc reactor, "This little circle of light, it's part of me now. Not just armor." He strolled over to his fellow scientist, "It's a terrible privilege."

"But you can control it." Banner corrected.

"Because I learned how."

Bruce shook his head, "It's different."

"Hey." Tony cleared the screen so Banner would listen, it wasn't often the unconventional playboy was serious. "I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you. So you're saying that the Hulk," he paused correcting himself, "The other guy, saved my life?" he smirked, "That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for…what?"

Tony shrugged, "I guess we'll find out." He walked back over to his side of the lab.

"You may not enjoy that." Banner said, going back to his monitor.

"You just might." Tony insisted.

* Mean Girls reference

* quote from wiki how to play galaga, I don't know anything about the game


	9. House Divided

"It's no accident Loki taking Erik Selvig." Thor commented to Agent Coulson. They were still on the bridge, waiting like everyone else for the gaggle of geniuses to locate the Tesseract. "I dread what he plans for him once he's done. Erik is a good man." Thor worried about his friend.

Coulson placated him, "He talks about you a lot. You changed his life. You changed everything around here."

Thor sighed as the two strolled around the rows of agents, "They were better as they were. We pretend on Asgard that we're more advanced, but we…we come here battling like bilchsteim."

"Like what?" Coulson queried.

"Bichsteim. You know, huge, scaly, big antlers." Thor expounded, "You don't have those?"

Coulson shook his head, "I don't think so."

Thor shrugged, "Well, they are repulsive and they trample everything in their path." He stared out the enormous windows of the command center, "When I first came to earth, Loki's rage followed me here and your people paid the price. And now again. In my youth I courted war." he lamented.

"War hasn't started yet." Fury's voice came down from his position. He was on the staircase walking down to their level. "You think you can make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?"

'I do not know. Loki's mind is far afield, it is not just power he craves. It is vengeance upon me." Thor shook his head, "There's no pain that would pry this need form him."

"A lot of guys think that, until the pain stops." Fury noted.

Thor looked up at the Director, "What are you asking me to do?"

"I'm asking," Fury paused, "what are you _prepared_ to do?"

Thor blinked confused, "Loki is a prisoner."

"Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?" Fury countered.

-sublimation-

Exiting the lab, Lucy looked around trying to figure out which way Steve went. Deciding he'd go deeper into the Helicarrier she made her way into towards the cargo bay. As she entered a corridor she saw the flash of one his boots, disappearing around a bend.

"Steve!" she called again, hurrying to catch up with him.

He paused, turning to look at her, face still stony from the conversation in the laboratory, "What aren't you telling me, Lu?" he inquired studying her expression.

She sighed a feeling of dread and chilliness starting from the pit of her stomach, "I'll tell you when my suspicions are confirmed." Taking his hand in her own, she led him lower into the aircraft, "Let's go." She whispered, "If it's what I think it is, then I might know where to find it."

Walking down a flight or two as well as dodging various agents, Steve and Lucy finally made it to a highly locked cargo hold. The door read 'Secure Storage 10-C'. Steve went to pry open the door when she stopped him. Pulling out a rectangular glass device she typed in a few codes and the entrance slid open with a soft hiss, "Much more elegant, don't you think?" she smiled up at him.

Steve spared her a small smile before they quietly ventured into the dimly lit room. Avoiding a few patrolling guards they climbed up to another level which held several large identical silver crates, stacked in row upon row. Flipping open the tops, they both opened a case of their own. Inside they found multiple weapons on a bed of protective straw.

Hydra weapons.

With a scowl Steve turned to Lucy, "You knew about this and you didn't tell me?" he demanded, hurt by her actions.

"I knew SHILED was thinking about studying the Tesseract." She admitted in disbelief, picking up one of the guns and studying it, "I was asked to help them because I was the only person still alive to have experience with the cube. But I never gave an exact answer, I was still making up my mind."

"So you just sat idly by as SHIELD secretly created weapons of mass destruction." He accused, still shocked over the find.

Lucy's head snapped to her partner, expression matching the furious intensity found in his own eyes, "Listen here, Captain." She spat incensed, "I've never sat around pointlessly as anything happened. I don't 100% condone what they're doing but I agree something needed to be done. You've seen how the world can only become more complicated and more advanced. We have enemies now who have power greater than we can even imagine. Studying the Tesseract was and is a viable solution to at least some of our problems."

Steve stood, grabbing one of the guns he stomped back to the lab, too angry about the entire situation to say anything to her he wouldn't regret later.

Slamming the cases shut, Lucy followed him, huffing and growling along the way.

-sublimation-

In the glass cage, Loki was pacing. Suddenly he halted his progress turning around with a grin, "There's not many people that can sneak up on me."

"But you figured I'd come." The Black Widow finished for him.

"After." Loki sauntered toward her, "After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."

Natasha cut to the chase, "I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton."

"I'd say I've expanded his mind." Loki smiled.

"And once you've won. Once you're king of the mountain." Natasha approached the Asgardian, crossing her arms, "What happens to his mind?"

Loki sneered, "Is this love, Agent Romanoff?"

"You wouldn't know love if it hit you in the face." The Black Widow scoffed, "Besides I owe him a debt."

"Tell me." he inquired, sitting down for a story.

"Before I worked for SHIELD, I…uh… well I made a name for myself." She replied, seating herself as well, "I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call." She finished reminiscing about that eventful day.

Loki considered the agent, "And what will you do if I vow to spare him?"

"Not let you out." Natasha replied sarcastically.

"Ah, no. But I like this." He leaned forward, "Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?"

"Regime's fall everyday." She shook her head, "I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian. Or I was."

"And what are you now?" Loki questioned.

"It's really not that complicated." Natasha answered, standing up once more, "I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out."

"Can you?" He replied incredulously, "Can you wipe out _that_ _much red_? Drakoff's daughter? Sao Paulo? The hospital file? Barton told me everything." Loki stood menacingly, "Your ledger is dripping, it's _gushing_ red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality." He belittled, "This is a child at prayer. Pathetic. You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will _never go away_." He slammed his fist against the glass, "I won't touch Barton! Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams I'll split his skull. This is my bargain, you mewling quim!" he finished as she turned away unable to listen any longer.

Natasha sniffled, "You're a monster."

"Oh, no." Loki laughed, "You brought the monster."

She turned around, "So, Banner? That's your play?" she remarked, faux crying all along.

"What?" he queried confused.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way." Natasha radioed into her comm, already marching toward the lab, "Send Thor as well." Turning back to the perplexed Asgardian she nodded, "Thank you, for your cooperation."

-sublimation-

Back in the laboratory, JARVIS had just cracked into SHIELD's secure files.

"What are you doing Mr. Stark?" Fury demanded walking into the workshop.

Tony looked up at the intrusion, "Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you."

Fury grit his teeth, "You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"We are," Bruce piped up, "the model's locked and we're seeping for the signature now." He pointed toward the search program currently at 48%, "When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"Yeah you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss." Tony's attention was captured as the monitor in front of him beeped, "What is Phase 2?" he questioned as Steve and Lucy entered.

Slamming one of the guns they found in the storage area Steve boomed, "Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons. Sorry," he looked to Tony unapologetically, "the computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract." Fury shook his head, "This does not mean that we're making…"

"I'm sorry Nick." Tony cut in, swiveling the monitor around. It displayed the blueprints for the obvious weapon lying in front of them, "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, Director." Steve remarked as Thor and Natasha walked in, "The world hasn't changed a bit."

Tony looked toward his godmother, "Did you know about this?"

Lucy shifted, "I only really knew SHIELD was studying the Tesseract. They did approach me for help; I declined the first few times, but I was considering it."

"And you decided not to tell us?" Tony questioned.

"I only knew about the project in theory." She defended, tired of being accused, "I didn't know they had ready advanced to the creation of working models."

Steve and Tony glared at her; slightly miffed she kept her knowledge from them.

Natasha stepped forward, removing the attention from Lucy; "You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?"

"I was in Calcutta," Bruce declared, "I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you." She placated him.

He backed away, "And you've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce pointed to the monitor again, "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Fury pointed to Thor, "Because of him."

"Me?" Thor looked up perplexed.

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge mass that leveled a small town." Fury explained, "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously out gunned."

Thor furrowed his brows, "My people want nothing but peace with your planet."

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury asked rhetorically, "And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who cannot be matched, they can't be controlled.

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve countered.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies." Thor stepped forward, "It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."

Steve looked around the room, "A higher form?" he stated the question on everyone else's mind.

"You forced our hand." The Director continued, "We had to come up with something…"

Tony scoffed, "A nuclear deterrent. Cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury turned to face the man.

Steve went to join the conversation, "I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep…"

Lucy gave a sigh of exasperation.

"Wait, wait, hold on." Tony held up a hand, "How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve commented snidely.

Thor belittled, "I thought humans were more evolved than this."

"Excuse me," Fury paused, "do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

"Do you understand…"

Then everyone started, speaking over one another trying to gain the upper hand.

"We can…"

"Are you boys really that naïve? SHIELD monitors potential threats."

"Captain America is on a threat watch list?"

"We all are."

"…Doctor."

"You're on that list?"

"Above or below…"

"Global threat. Global threat. I feel threatened!"

"Oh honestly, Eddie!"

"And you didn't tell me…"

"…show some respect!"

"Respect?"

-sublimation-

Unbeknownst to the bickering group in the lab, a lone quinjet was making its way toward the Helicarrier.

A woman's voice radioed to the approaching plane, "Transport 6650. Please relay confirms code. I've got you on the computer but not on the log. What is your haul over?"

"Arms to ammunition. Over." The pilot communicated back. Behind him, various agents dressed in all black prepared to board the larger aircraft. Leading them was Clint Barton.

-sublimation-

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor was saying.

"It's his MO isn't it?" Bruce cut in causing everyone to stop and look at him. "I mean, what are we a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're… we're a time bomb."

Fury calmed the man, "You need to step away."

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony defended the Doctor placing a hand on Steve's shoulder.

"You know damn well why!" Steve asserted the same time Lucy glared at her godson.

She tsked heatedly, "Anthony!"

"Back off!" Steve continued, pushing away the offending hand.

Tony lost his nonchalant pose, "Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor." Steve circled the shorter man, "Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony fired back.

Lucy shrugged behind the arrogant self professed playboy, he wasn't wrong. Ginger would have a lot to hear when this was over.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Steve continued indignantly, "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony confessed.

Steve sneered shaking his head, "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero?" Tony repeated, "Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Put on the suit," Steve challenged, "let's go a few rounds."

"Both of you!" Lucy commanded, pushing her way between them, "That is _enough_!" she looked back and forth between the two men, outrage coloring her face.

Thor laughed, "You people are so petty, and tiny."

"Yes, this is a team." Banner muttered sarcastically.

Fury looked over to Natasha, "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Doctor Banner back to his…"

"Where?" Bruce questioned, "You're renting my room."

"The cell was just…" The Director tried to placate the man.

"In case you needed to kill me; but you can't. I know, I tried." He professed. The rest of the fights quieted down as they listened to the Doctor, "I got low, I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?" he threatened.

Every other agent in the room reached for their weapons.

Steve reached over to grasp Lucy's hand whilst slightly moving his body in front of hers. "Banner." He called to the Doctor, "Put down the scepter."

Bruce turned to stare at his hand. Suddenly he found Loki's magical weapon to be in his possession.

 **Beep. Beep. Beep.** From across the room, the tracking program had completed its search.

"We got it." Fury nodded in relief.

"Sorry, kids." Bruce set down the staff before moving toward the computer, "You don't get to see my party trick after all."

"Located the Tesseract?" Thor questioned.

Tony jumped in, "I can get here faster."

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it." Thor insisted.

"You're not going alone." Steve moved to grab Tony's arm as he started to walk away.

Slapping away the hand Tony spit out, "You going to stop me?"

"Put on the suit, let's find out." Steve opposed.

Tony smirked, "Oh, I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit."

Lucy rubbed her temples. She wasn't going to make a day it if the two most important people in her life kept fighting the way they were.

Doctor Banner removed his glasses in disbelief. The energy signature match of the gamma signature location was getting closer by the second, "Oh my god." He breathed.


	10. Renegade

_**BOOM!**_ A bomb sent by Agent Barton exploded on the Helicarrier. Black and white smoke poured out of the detonation site whilst fire exploded in a raging ball of destruction. Little bits of the metal rocketed off into the unknown, trailing clouds of flames and steam. Dust and debris immediately started to fall from their original locations. A rush of heat rippled out from the failing engine as the aircraft started to veer off course.

Inside the lab, a tongue of fire licked its way into the workroom. Entering through a vent, it startled every one of its occupancy. Lucy, who was standing between Steve and Director Fury, dove toward the scepter saving it from being blown out the shattered window. Steve and Tony were blasted back toward one of the doorways whilst Fury and Thor were thrown in the opposite direction. Natasha and Bruce were shot down through one of the glass windows, onto a lower level, each one hitting the ground hard trying to shield their faces. Hitting her forehead on the corner of a counter Lucy groaned. Disoriented, she rolled over, trying to establish her surroundings as the world began to tip dangerously.

"Lucy!" Steve yelled through the smoke, failing to see her behind the fallen equipment. He stood up from his position beside a fallen Tony, rushing to see if she was okay.

With a little help from Steve, Lucy sat up still holding the magical staff, "I'm fine." She waved him off, blinking to steady her vision. Her ears were still ringing from the fall.

"Agent Zero." Fury called over the din, righting himself as well. "Keep an eye on that scepter." He nodded toward the glowing wand in Lucy's hand. "I have a feeling someone's going to come for it. And keep the program locked on the Tesseract, we can't lose it again."

"Roger that." She affirmed standing up. Looking to Steve who was still concernedly checking her out, she commanded with a weak smile, "Go. I'll be fine. I'm just staying here in the lab."

With a last look, Steve left her. Going over to Tony he helped the other man up, "Put on the suit!" he repeated urgently, this time in all seriousness.

"Yep!" Tony agreed trying to find his balance again. Both of them turned to rush out the door followed shortly by the Director and Thor.

Lucy used the nearest table to steady herself as she moved to the computer in the corner of the room. Flipping it open from it's collapsed state she checked the abandoned equipment. Smoke wafted through out the room as loud bangs were heard from another part of the ship. Now the only person left in the damaged workshop, she set about doing her assigned task. Seeing that the algorithm was still working correctly she looked back toward the glowing scepter she had placed on the dusty counter top.

A throbbing headache was taking root in the back of her skull, distracting her from all other forms of stimulation. The blue energy seemed to call to her, beckoning her to come closer, it was the only thing she could see. It's seductive glint caused her hand to slowly reach for the handle. A faint whispering in her ears encouraged her actions. She wanted to hold the magical weapon nothing else mattered. As her fingers wrapped their way around Loki's scepter, the pounding in her brain started to dull. Lucy caressed the cool metal admiring the enchanting azure luminosity at the top. A gentle nudge inside her mind caused her eyes to flicker toward the doorway that led toward a certain Asgardian.

-sublimation-

Alarms blared through out the Helicarrier as agents ran toward their emergency positions. Some were reading streams of updates from their computers, others were rushing to grab their weapons, readying for a hostile boarding. But uniformly, everyone found himself or herself in a state of extreme panic.

"Hill?!" Director Fury demanded to his second as he made his way toward the bridge.

"Turn up that engine!" Agent Maria Hill ordered, trying to salvage the situation, "Number 3 engine is down. Can we get a run in? Talk to me."

"We've been hit!" Various other agents were adding to her statement. "We've got a fire engine 3."

A male agent looked up as Hill approached, "Turbine looks mostly intact." He notified her as she read over his shoulder, "But it's impossible to get out there to make repairs when we're in the air."

"If we lose one one of the engines we won't be." Maria added, considering the less than pleasing report, "Somebody has got to get outside and patch that engine."

Fury replied, "Stark, did you copy that?"

"I'm on it." Tony affirmed.

"Coulson!" Fury ordered, checking in with his top agents, "Initiate official lockdown in the detention section then get to the armory! Romanoff!"

A level below the lab, Natasha was pinned to the ground. A metal beam had fallen on her leg, holding her under its inescapable weight. Wincing her tried to pry her foot free to no avail. Looking over to Bruce she assured the Director, "We're ok." Noticing the spasming coming from the previously still Doctor she panted, still winded from the fall, "We're ok, right?" she questioned, suddenly unsure of her statement.

-sublimation-

From the deck of the Helicarrier, Clint and his agents, now dressed in SHIELD clothing, made their way into the ship. Knocking down a vent they entered the area near the inactive propeller.

"Keep that engine down." Clint ordered to a group of his men, Detention!" he set a few more to free Loki, "Wait for the cameras to go dark." To the remaining few he nodded, "Stay close."

-sublimation-

Tony and Steve had made their way to one of the storage bays, "Engine three." Tony said to Steve, "I'll meet you there." Steve nodded running toward the designated area as Tony moved deeper into the bay. Clicking a glass handheld device he opened the container that held his suit. The doors slid open revealing the Iron Man armor powering up for its next use.

"Bruce, you've got to fight it." Natasha tried to calm the heavily breathing Doctor. "This is just what Loki wants. We're going to be okay. Listen to me." looking up she noticed a few concerned agents. Furiously waving her arm she dismissed them from the scene. "We're going to be okay. All right?" she tried again, "I swear on my life I will get you out of this. You will walk away and never…"

" _ **Your life!**_ " Bruce shouted, losing control over his emotions. His skin was rippling across his growing muscles. The seams of his dress shirt stretched and popped, the fabric splitting over his form. His skin turned from a slight tan to a grey green, his expression turning ghastly as he stumbled away.

Pushing again, Natasha tried to escape the metal trapping her foot. Looking up she watched as the last inkling of cogitation left his eyes, "Bruce." She pleaded in a final attempt to bring him back to the realm of humanity.

In a blink Bruce Banner had disappeared. In his place was the raging form of the Hulk. He stumbled around the lower deck, crowded by pipes and other mechanisms that kept the ship in the air. In his anger, an arm was punched through a tall metal cylinder. Steam poured out of the mangled metal as Natasha yanked her foot from the fallen beams. Hearing the clatter the Hulk turned around, his gaze catching on her fleeing form. With a howl he gave chase, ripping apart electrical wiring and pulling down whole sets of stairs. He blew threw vents and pipes as the Black Widow nimbly and hurriedly ran for her life.

From his glass cage, Loki smiled his keen ears picking up the clamor echoing from the lower decks. The Hulk had been unleashed. A blue shadow crossed his eyes as another person entered his isolated perimeter. He looked up to see a slight form. "So," his grin widening to stretch over his entire face, "you came."

Making it to the bustling command center Fury commanded, "Bring the carrier inwards and head south. Takes us to the water."

"We're flying blind." One of the helmsman technicians notified him, "Navigation is recalibrating after the engine failure."

Fury questioned exasperatedly, "Is the sun coming up?"

"Yes sir." The man looked toward the window nervously.

"Then put it on the left." Fury continued logically, "Get us over water. One more turbine goes down and we drop."

Steve hefted open a door leading to the bombed engine, "Stark!" he communicated to his radio, "Stark! I'm here!"

"Good." Tony flew in, "Let's see what we got." He hovered over the still smoking metal, "I've got to get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris. I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position." He informed the Captain.

Steve looked around for the panel Tony had mentioned. Spotting the machine a level up he backed away before leaping and swinging his way to the regulators. Opening a small door he pulled out a sliding board criss crossed wires, chips, and lights.

"What's it look like in there?" Tony questioned as he dove deeper into the engine.

Steve shook his head, completely out of his depth, "It seems to run on some form of electricity." He waved his hand uselessly.

Tony sighed before he offered, "Well, you're not wrong."

Deep inside the hull of the ship, an enraged monster was still chasing Natasha. Coming to a more convoluted section of the floor she paused, waiting to see if she had lost Banner, hidden beneath closely packed machines. Shadows came and went as she tried to steady her harsh breathing listening to every whisper in the air. Taking her gun from its holster she moved from her hideaway. Then from behind her the Hulk appeared. Taking aim she fired round after round but only managed to nick a pipe, which released steam into his face, furthering his wrath. Taking advantage of his distraction, Natasha once again turned to flee in any direction away from him. His speed outmatched hers even though he had to clear his own path through the human sized doorways. Finally catching up to the Black Widow he smacked her aside causing her body to fly into stack of crates. Bouncing off the wall Natasha fell onto the hard ground, every part of her body ached as she tried to life her head. The Hulk approached one more time to give her another blow when suddenly he was sent flying through a wall. Finding himself in an airplane hanger the Hulk looked up to find Thor standing before him.

"We're not your enemies, Banner." The Asgardian tried to communicate to the former Doctor as they traded kicks and punches. "Try to think!"

From inside the inert engine, Tony had just blasted his way through the wreckage. "Ok. The relays are intact." Steve notified him. "What's our next move?"

"Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't reengage without a jump." Tony studied the twisted metal through the helpful aid of his viewfinder, "I'm going to have to get in there and push." He concluded.

Steve worried, "Well if that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded."

"That standard control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage mag…" Tony rattled off before he was interrupted.

"Speak English." Steve enunciated slowly.

"I should've brought Arie." Tony mumbled to himself, "See that red lever?" He explained, "It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out." Steve jumped back to the other side of the engine, "Stand by it, wait for my word."

Still inside the hanger, Thor had just been backhanded through a few large electrical mechanisms, landing on his face. Rolling into a crouch he raised an arm calling forth Mjolnir. With a practiced swipe he gave the Hulk a swift undercut, launching him into an expensive fighter jet. Standing he recovered, ripped off the wing of the destroyed plane and threw it at Thor. Missing, the metal shaved off the top half of an all terrain jeep. Thor ducked under the projectile, and hefting his hammer at the Hulk. Banner avoided Mjolnir but tried to catch it causing him to fly back several yards. Landing with a thud he tried to lift the insolent hammer. The cement under his feet cracked and crumbled as the hammer stayed put. Thor jumped over the Hulk, grabbing g Mjolnir and putting him in a chokehold.

"We need full evac on lower hanger bay." Fury ordered to Hill as he monitored the scuffle between Thor and the Hulk.

Maria nodded in affirmation as she made to leave the bridge calling a few agents to follow her. Midway through her exit a rolling object caught her attention. Eyes widening she warned, "Grenade!" but she was ready too close. Her body was sent flying through the air, over a rail and onto a lower level of the deck, landing with a huff.

Fury moved quickly. Hiding behind the doorway he ambushed a few of the entering hostiles. Taking down three agents he was too slow to get the last one. But all was well as Agent Hill fired the last shot.

"We've got a perimeter breach." A voice radioed to all other agents, "Hostiles are in SHIELD gear. Hold on to every junction."

Coulson nodded to himself as he approached a door. Entering a code he supplied his fingerprint and eye to the reading of a scanner.

With a roar, the Hulk and Thor had moved from the hanger bay and somehow made it up a level.

Back on the bridge, agents were hiding under their desks or firing at the constant stream of hostiles trying to entre the command center.

"We have Hulk and Thor are in the research level 4. Levels 2 and 3, are done!" a voice notified Fury and Hill.

"Sir, the Hulk will tear this place apart!" Maria warned as she fired again and again at the incoming agents.

Fury affirmed, "Get his attention."

Hill radioed to the jet pilot, "Escorts 606, proceed to research level and engage hostile. Don't get too close." She added as an after thought.

"Copy." Flying around the distressed Helicarrier the jet veered into place, "Target acquired. Target engaged." And he fired at the incredible Hulk. "Target angry! Target angry!" he yelled trying to retreat as the Hulk bore down on the hovering jet. With a leap from the main aircraft the Hulk attached himself to the tiny plane. Sliding around on the slick aerodynamic surface he ripped apart the engine. The pilot ejected himself, his parachute opening successfully as he floated away to safety. The Hulk on the other hand continued to fall with the damaged jet until it exploded launching him far away to an unknown location.

Back on engine 3, Tony was dislodging pieces of metal stuck in between the rotors. A red laser shot out of his forearm cutting through the large scraps before he jumped onto it, watching the pieces fall back down to earth. But back on Steve's side, the group Clint had sent to keep the engine down had just arrived. One of the masked men pulled the pin out of a grenade throwing it into the disabled rotor but was thwarted as Steve leapt to it, knocking it away from its destination. Swinging down to their level, he knocked out two of the men. Disarming one and throwing the other off the ship he turned around when a third man appeared. A stream of bullets followed his trajectory as he twisted back up to a fallen gun. Backing away he returned the shots.

On the bridge Fury and his agents continued to fire at the incoming agents.

"They are not getting through here." Fury muttered to himself.

From a little window above the command center, Clint released multiple arrows. A few distraction explosions flowed by a specialized device that inserted itself into SHIELD's database. The Director turned to fire at the agent but the damage had already been done.

An automatic voice notified the crew as the Helicarrier started to become even more unbalanced, "Engine one is now in shut down. We are now in an uncontrolled descent." Equipment slipped and slid all over the ship. On to deck, multiple aircrafts and land vehicles came loose from their bindings and plummeted to the earth.

"Sir we've lost all power to engine one." An agent called out.

Fury sighed and radioed to his agents hoping for an answer, "It's Barton. He took out our system. He's headed for the detention lab. Does anybody copy?"

Still sitting quietly after her horrific run in with the Hulk Natasha said into her earpiece, "This is Agent Romanoff. I copy." Before running to intercept her friend.

Arriving at the glass cage, Lucy watched as a few unknown men opened the locks housing Loki. The entrance slid open with a hiss allowing the freed Asgardian to walk out. He strolled over to her with a grin. "Thank you." He held his hand out for the scepter she still gripped in her shaking fists.

Outside Tony started to push on the propellers.

"Stark, we're losing altitude." Fury reminded the Iron Man.

"Yeah." He grunted powering up the suit, "I've noticed."

Nearby Steve was preoccupied dodging bullets and trying to return fire at a man hiding behind a corner. As the ship started to tilt, his feet slipped on the sliding metal floors, launching him out the open side. With a grunt he managed to just barely grab onto a dangling wire, halting his fall but still flying dangerously out the side of the ship.

After his fight with the Hulk, Thor had also heeded Fury's warning about the detention center and was making his way toward the glass cage. Just as he whipped around the corner he saw Loki calmly waiting as the entrance to his enclosure was opened. Instinctively Thor ran forward trying to stop his escape, "No!" he yelled leaping to tackle Loki. Instead his body flew through an illusion of his brother, handing face first on the hard floor.

Looking up he noticed the real Loki standing by the control panel. "Are you ever not going to fall for that?" the god of mischief snickered.

A few corridors away from the brother's face off, Clint was making his way through the distressed Helicarrier. Feeling someone he behind him he pulled out his bow, notched an arrow, and fired. Natasha knocked away the shot, dodging his strikes she kicked him in the chest then snaked her way under the metal floor. Clint looked over the side trying to track her movements as she quietly hopped back up behind him. He notched another arrow but it missed as she swung around a metal beam. Now back on the same level they engaged in hand-to-hand combat. He pinned her against the handrail but she escaped with his bow. From a back sheath he pulled out a pocketknife, armed and ready to engage her once more.

Thor was currently slamming his hammer against the walls of the confine. To his dismay the only thing that happened besides a small crack in the glass, was the loosening of the metal arms holding the prison in place.

Loki moved his hand over the console nonchalantly, "The humans think us immortal." He mused to his irritated brother, "Should we test that?"

Suddenly, one of Loki's guards went down. Behind the fallen man, Agent Phil Coulson was revealed, "Move away please." He pointed a large and powerful weapon at Loki who backed a step away from the control panel, "Do you like this?" he smiled lifting the gun, "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer." He grinned dryly remembering the debacle that was New Mexico, "Even I don't know what it does. Do you want to find out?" he finished, bravely threatening the Asgardian as the firearm powered up.

Then Coulson's breath caught in his throat. Looking down he spotted the tip of Loki's scepter poking out of his abdomen. But Loki was still standing in front of him, grinning a maniacal smile. Then the weapon was gone, a cold feeling replacing its former position. His lifeblood spilled out of him in rivulets, soaking into his ruffled suit. Standing above the agent was Lucy. Coulson choked out his disbelief as he stared into her face, her eyes had transformed from their familiar warm sheen to cold electric cobalt.

"No!" Thor protested, slamming his fists against the glass as he helplessly witnessed the disturbing scene. Lady Zero was usually so gentle and agreeable; furthermore he knew she and Agent Coulson had a close kinship.

Lucy docilely walked to stand at attention behind Loki and passing him the scepter; her new master smiled triumphantly. The others looked on, their hearts shattering as they beheld Loki's subjugation over one so pure. Loki shrugged before looking turning his attention to the panel beside him. Flipping a switch he opened the door below the glass cage. A great gust of wind blew inside the carrier as his hand hovered over the release button. With one last look at look at his brother, Thor was released into the sky.

On a narrow walkway, Clint and Natasha were still delivering strikes, blocks, and counters to one another. She grabbed his hand, straightening it so he couldn't bend his arm. With a quick flick he transferred his knife to his other hand taking a swipe at her head. She ducked and they found themselves in a strength lock, knife pointing toward one agent's throat before it switched to the other's. As a last resort Natasha bit Clint's arm causing him to drop the blade. With a flip of her legs she had his arm pinned with his body hunched over as she rammed him into a metal pole. With a resounding bang his skull made contact with the bars. His body falling down hard as his arms flailed trying to steady himself. Groaning he blinked, moving his to a crouch. Looking up at her his eyes cleared back to their regular hue of a light brown.

"Natasha?" He questioned, disoriented squinting to make out her form. With a huff she delivered one last punch to his face, knocking him onto his back as she breathed hard, tired from their scuffle.

In his glass cage, Thor continued to tumble around like a powerless leaf inside a tornado. Finally catching Mjolnir, he steadied himself on one side of the enclosure before rocketing himself through the other side and out into the air, just before the crashing cylinder reached the ground in an explosion of dirt and water.

"You're going to lose." Coulson whispered to Loki as the massive drop door closed back up.

Loki approached the dying agent, "Am I?" he queried.

Coulson panted, "It's in your nature."

"Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky." Loki listed off events of his doing, "Where is my disadvantage?" he remarked self confidently.

"You lack of conviction." Coulson informed the naïve Asgardian. For one so powerful he had much to be desired in wisdom.

Loki's eyes flashed as he bit out, "I don't think I…"

But a colossal fire blast from Coulson's new firearm knocked him off his feet and through the next wall. He smirked still slumped against the wall, "So that's what it does."

"All hands to crash stations immediately." An announcer was informing the entire Helicarrier crew.

Tony was using every ounce of power his suit had to try and stabilize the ship's failing flight. Spinning and pushing the rotors he spun in countless circles over and over, each time increasing in speed. "Cap, hit the lever." He grunted out, trying not to be sick. A lesser man would have already been sick from the centrifugal motion.

"I need a minute here!" Steve yelled over the wind as he pulled his body up from hanging out of the hole in the aircraft.

"Lever! Now!" Tony commanded growing more panicked with every rotation. After a time there came a point where the propellers began to move on their own. His eyes widened as his palms left the metal his back hitting the front of the blade behind him. "Uh oh." He whispered to himself as his body was thrown around among the fixed engine.

Back on the other side of the engine, Steve had managed to haul himself back onto the deck. Whilst avoiding the steam of bullets aimed at his form, he lifted an arm to yank the lever to a new position.

With a shout, Tony was freed from the spinning blades of death, his suit a little worse for wear. As soon as he stabilized himself he rocketed back up to the Helicarrier and launched his body at the agent firing at Steve, knocking the man out. Both Steve and Tony sighed as they completed their task; established the relative safety of themselves and the ship.

On the deck of the Helicarrier, Lucy commandeered a quinjet. The small plane took off quietly, leaving behind the smoking remains of its larger mother vessel, flying away with a pleased Loki riding in the back.

Tiredly Tony and Steve made their way back to the bridge to wait upon the others.

Fury on the other hand had left the bridge, running to check on the dire state of one of his best agents.

"I'm sorry, boss." Coulson called out spotting the Director, "They got rabbited."

"Just stay awake." Fury ordered the agent as he scrutinized his wounds, "Eyes on me." he righted Coulson's lolling head.

Coulson smiled grimly, "They got Marie." He urgently notified Fury about the fate of their mutual friend.

The Director grit his teeth, "We can deal with that later. Stay awake."

"It's okay boss." Coulson breathed out, "This was never going to work if they didn't have something to…"

At that moment the medical team interrupted them.

"Lay him down!"

"Get pressure on that wound!" the medics rushed to save his life.

-sublimation-

"Agent Coulson had been hospitalized." Fury radioed to the others, "Major stab wound to the abdomen." he sighed making his way back to the command center, "But we've got another problem. Agent Zero has been taken."


	11. Second Law of Thermodynamics

In the end, Tony and Steve were the only ones who had made it back to the bridge when Fury walked in. Natasha was watching over an unconscious Clint and everyone else… well…

Everyone else was gone.

The bridge was quiet. Every agent solemnly went about their business, slowly recovering from the damage of Loki's surprise attack. No one could muster the energy to meet one another's eyes. Maria Hill stood at attention behind the Director as they waited for him to speak.

Tony adjusted his neck, blinking furiously swiveling in his chair. For the first time, he actually felt like the emotionless robot many people in the past accused him of being. His body was running on automatic; without his arc reactor, he was almost sure his heart would have given out at the news. Losing Arie had been like losing something that had always been guaranteed to be there. Like losing a parent all over again, and yet not, because she had always been more than that. She was a godmother, an aunt, a sister, and a friend. His most trusted confidant and his most loyal supporter. Gone. Gone in a flash so suddenly he didn't even realize she was missing until it was too late. She couldn't be the one in trouble. She couldn't be the one lost. That was his job. Nothing was supposed to happen to her. He cleared his throat to hide his sniffling.

A seat away from the grieving billionaire sat the man soldier out of time. A solitary super soldier who hadn't been away from his partner since waking up from the ice. Steve's emotions flipped between fiery all consuming righteous rage and utterly debilitating helplessness that made him angry all over again. This was not acceptable. Every second they spent doing nothing she was getting farther and farther away. They didn't have time to waste, and yet what could he do? They didn't have any idea where Loki had gone. Their ship was limping along as it was and all their equipment had either been disabled or completely trashed somehow. Lucy had ensured the Tesseract tracking data had been wiped clean. At this moment, Steve felt as if he might as well still be frozen for all he could do.

From a hidden pocket in his uniform, Steve pulled out the last thing he had of her. It was the battered and bruised compass. The corners were chipped, its face scratched, and the sheen from constant friction against fabric rubbing away the outer coating made it look as old as it was; and yet it still worked. But a direction wasn't why he wanted, _no_ _needed_ to look at the device right at this particular moment. It was the person whose face was smiling up at him from an extremely old photograph. The person who had kept him sane after finding out he had been sleeping for 70 years. The one who helped him fight the depression, the anxiety, and the loneliness. The woman to whom he had given his entire being. The friend who had accepted him, loved him, and believed him in before he joined the army and became Captain America. The brilliant scientist who had accomplished a countless number of projects he couldn't even begin to list. His better half, the stronger half, the more beautiful half of their partnership. Her anger, her passion, her gentleness, gave him life and purpose to live on. He hoped to ever see the day where his pulse didn't quicken, where his palms didn't become sweaty, where his breath didn't catch in his throat as he beheld her. He would do anything to catch even a glimpse of her radiant smile. To this day he felt flustered and inadequate in her mere presence, but in a good way. In a way that made him desire to rise to the challenge, to win the bet. To show her she was right to allow him into her life and to keep him around for however long she may wish.

If what he was feeling in this moment was any fraction of what she felt when they were apart, he swore nothing he could do in the future would ever make up for it. Nothing could ever forgive the pain, the sadness, the emptiness he felt burning through his conquered carcass of a body. His chest felt like every disaster known to man had ripped through his being at once at their highest level of power. In the aftermath, a barren desolation speared its stinging claws into his heart, gripping and twisting nonstop. At the same time, he was in shock. The shroud that surrounded him was barely penetrated by the words uttered by the weary Director. The sentiments came to him through a bubble as he sat staring at the glass table in front of him.

"We're dead in the air up here." Fury informed them listlessly, "Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor… I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye." He shook his head, "Maybe I had that coming. Yes," the Director began to pace around the deck, "we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea; Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. It was based on the existence of our mutual friend actually." Fury alluded to Lucy, "Every time SHIELD found itself in some deep shit, there was one person we knew we could call on for help. So, the idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Agent Coulson and Lucille Marie Barnes believed in that idea. They believed in you, in heroes, even if they're too humble to include themselves in that description." Steve looked at him in surprise, "Yeah I know her real name. Her alias has been Marie Rogers for the past 50 years, but she has always been there for us. I regret to admit that in her most desperate time of need, we won't be there for her." Tony stood up and quickly led left the room, unable to handle anymore. Fury sighed, "Well, it's an old fashioned notion."

-sublimation-

Back on earth, in a beautiful meadow, Thor stood among the wild grasses and flowers. Leisurely walking through the brush he made his way to his fallen hammer. Mother nature had blessed this part of the earth. It had been left untouched by the controlling hand of man. Birds sang as bees buzzed both flying through the air, both unbothered by the impending war threatening the world of man. As the God of Thunder came upon Mjolnir, he paused.

-sublimation-

"You fell out of the sky." A wizened voice broke through the grogginess encapsulating Bruce's mind. Looking around he found himself in some sort of abandoned warehouse. All the windowpanes were missing and he was sitting on what seemed to be a large pile of bricks and broken metal.

Sitting up Bruce groaned, "Did I hurt anybody?"

"There's nobody around here to get hurt." The old man chuckled a few yards away from the fallen Doctor. He was wearing a grey uniform of a security guard, "You did scare the hell out of some pigeons through."

"Lucky." Banner remarked, rubbing the dust out of his eyes.

"Or just good aim." The man commented, "You were awake when you fell."

Bruce looked up in surprise, "You saw?"

"The whole thing, right through the ceiling. Big and green and buck ass nude." picking up a pile of fabric he tossed it at the Doctor, "Here. I didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular size fella."

Scrambling for the clothes Bruce nodded, "Thank you."

Watching the peculiar Doctor for a little while the man asked, "Are you an alien?"

Bruce looked up, not sure he heard correctly, "What?"

"From outer space," the guard clarified, "an alien?"

Bruce considered the question with some amusement, "No."

"Well then, son," the man conceded, "you've got a condition."

-sublimation-

In an isolated room, Clint Barton was blinking furiously. He shook his head multiple times trying to rid his mind of the control Loki had over him. One minute he could think straight, he was in control; the next, there were two voices telling him things that both made sense but he was torn which to pick. His hands were fisted as his muscles strained but his arms were strapped to the reclined seat.

"Clint," Natasha's voice broke through the woolliness, "you're going to be all right." She reassured him.

"You know that?" he growled out, "Is that what you know?" he chuckled darkly, "I've got… I've got to go in though. I've got to flush him out."

"We don't have that long," she stood to pour him a glass of water, "it's going to take time."

"I don't understand. Have you ever had someone take your brain and play?" he leaned back in his seat, brow sweaty from fighting the demons warring in his mind, "Pull you out and stuff something else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"

Natasha looked over at her friend, "You know that I do." She replied grimly.

"Why am I back?" Clint asked confused, "How did you get him out?"

"Cognitive recalibration." She sat next to him, "I hit you really hard in the head." She elucidated.

"Thanks." He smiled gratefully as she removed the restraints, "Tasha, how many agents?"

"Don't." she gave him a hard look, "Don't do that to yourself, Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic and nothing we were ever trained for."

"Loki." Barton looked up at the name, "He get away?"

"Yeah." She admitted, "I don't suppose you know where?"

He shook his head, "I didn't need to know. I didn't ask." Clint sipped at the water, "He's going to make his play soon though. Today."

Natasha stood, "We've got to stop him."

"Yeah?" he smirked, "Who's we?"

"I don't know." She confessed pacing, "Whoever's left."

"Well," Clint shrugged, "if I put an arrow in Loki's eye, I'd sleep better I suppose."

She smiled sitting down beside him, "Now you sound like you."

"But you don't." Clint sat up to look at her fully, "You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do?" concerned he leaned in, placing a hand on hers, "Natasha?" he questioned seriously.

She looked down joining their fingers together and gripped him like a lifeline. With a deep breath she choked out, "He took, Ree."

-sublimation-

Tony was standing in the detention center. Below him was the secured exit of the glass cage. Beside him was the dark sangria stain left as evidence of Lucy's betrayal and Coulson's sacrifice. He blinked quickly to rid the moisture from his eyes when he heard the heavy footfalls of an approaching visitor.

Steve paused before the enormous hole in the floor, on the other side of the room from Tony; "They say if he makes it through the night, then he's got a good chance of recovering." He notified Stark of Agent Coulson's fate, "Is he married?" he questioned.

"No." Tony replied thinking back only a day or two ago when Coulson came to inform him of the Tesseract situation, "There was a uh…cellist… I think."

"I'm sorry." Steve apologized, "He seems like a good man."

Tony shook his head, "He's an idiot."

"Why? For believing?" Steve's brows furrowed together as he considered the other man.

"For taking on Loki alone." Tony paced toward the super soldier.

"He was doing his job." Steve countered.

Tony laughed dryly, "He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…" he listed, frustrated and confused more things beyond just the life threatening injuries sustained by Phil Coulson.

Then static from the Helicarrier's ship wide intercoms interrupted his rant, both of the men looking up in puzzlement.

"Sir." Maria Hill called the attention of the SHIELD Director, "We've got an untraceable incoming call." She shook her head in disbelief, "It says it's from Agent Zero."

Fury looked up, "That'll be Loki." He said, considering his options, "Accept it and open communications on all levels. Let's see what he has to say."

" _I was wondering if you were going to answer."_ Loki's smug voice and image appeared across all working screens on the aircraft.

Steve and Tony straightened, quickly going over to the control panel to watch the message. Both their jaws clenched as they viewed the man responsible for taking someone very important to them.

Clint and Natasha stood as they saw the monitor in their room flicker.

" _What do you want Loki?"_ Fury spat out.

" _Nothing."_ Loki shrugged, _"I just thought by now you unobservant humans would notice a certain member missing from your ranks. Not to worry."_ He moved to the side of the screen, _"I'll take good care of her."_ He grinned, beckoning Lucy to join him on the screen.

Steve's hand automatically reached out for her as she appeared. She looked exactly like how he left her, unharmed and well except for the startling difference in her glazed blue eyes. Her face was now disinterested, calculated, and neutral; completely different from her usual warm and inviting smile. His heart hurt watching her stand before him looking so unlike herself.

" _Isn't that right, Lucy?"_ the God of Mischief turned to look at the brain washed agent.

She gave no answer to the Asgardian however Steve responded in exactly the way Loki was anticipating. His hackles rose, knuckles turning white as he bared his teeth. The reaction was instinctual. She hadn't allowed anyone in this day and age to call her by her given name much less an informal, secret, intimate nickname as 'Lucy'. His causal use of the term was the final straw, the last weight needed to tip the scales. He would find Loki and _**nothing**_ would stop him from freeing her from the despicable control the Asgardian had on her.

" _I hope you understand what an exquisite gift you have here."_ Loki continued, brushing a stray hair behind Lucy's ear as he admired her. " _Her mind is_ _ **gorgeous**_ _. The power and intellect encapsulated inside her is breathtaking. I can feel her fighting me from within."_ He chuckled, _"It was no small feat to bend her to my will… But I enjoy the challenge."_ His gaze returned to the camera as a device beeped, notifying him of something, _"Wish we could stay longer, but we've got a world to conquer."_ And with one last smirk, the screen went black.

With a roar of frustration, Steve's fist went flying through the metal wall beside him leaving a gigantic gaping hole in the otherwise flawless surface. Tony's eyes widened as he witness the intense emotional display from the usually levelheaded man. Steve could feel the pain of micro fractions ripping up from his fingers through his arm as he pulled back. The rapid healing given to him by the serum was already fixing the damage but it couldn't fix the gut wrenching pain blooming in his chest. His breath came out in heavy pants and he tried to calm himself. Trying to clear his head, he began to formulate a plan of action, "Loki needs a power source." Steve said, starting to pace around the limited space, "If we can put together a list…"

"He made it personal." Tony interjected, considering Loki's smug video call.

Steve shook his head, "That's not the point."

"That is the point." Tony maintained, reaching an epiphany, "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart." Steve concluded.

"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right?" Tony thought out loud, "That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." Now both of them pacing back in forth, too high strung to stand still.

"Right, I caught his act at Suttengard." Steve rolled his eyes.

Tony clapped nodding, "Yeah. That's just a preview, this is… this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full tilt diva." He listed waving his arms wildly, growing more energetic with each sentence, "He wants _flowers_ , he wants _parades_ , and he wants _a monument built in the skies with his name plastered_..." he paused realization dawning on his face.

Steve nodded encouraging him to explain.

" **Son of a bitch!"**

-sublimation-

Steve had cleaned up and put back on his uniform, "Time to go." He informed the Black Widow, standing at the entrance to the room she was currently in.

Natasha looked up confused, "Go where?" She was still reeling a little after getting chased by the Hulk, getting Clint back, and watching Ree with Loki, all so close together.

"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?" Steve inquired.

The door to the bathroom opened as Clint walked out wiping his hands on a towel, "I can." He offered.

Steve looked at Natasha. She nodded; Barton was back on their side.

"You got a suit?" he asked Hawkeye.

Clint nodded, "Yeah."

"Then suit up." instructed Captain America.


	12. Thoughtcrime

Lucy was at war with herself. On one hand, she felt free, unburdened, and fulfilled as she obeyed Loki's commands. However at the same time she was torn, confused, and angry. But for the life of her, she couldn't exactly remember why she felt that way. It felt natural to follow the gentle prods inside her consciousness. She wanted to obey the Asgardian, she wanted to help take control of mankind, and currently she wanted to commandeer Stark Tower.

-sublimation-

With renewed energy, the Avengers made their way past the confused SHIELD agents, suited up and ready to go. With their protective and stylish gear they brought commanded respect and fear from the hearts of every person they passed. Without slowing their march, they quickly approached a lone quinjet. Entering, the others went to their appointed stations.

The young pilot stood up, confused; "You're not authorized to be here…" he began nervously in the face of the world's very own real live superheroes.

Steve stopped him with an exasperated hand, "Son…just don't."

-sublimation-

Disabling JARVIS's security would take Lucy no time at all. Tony was good but she lived for puzzles. Once in a while she would break in just to keep him on his toes. The only evidence she would leave of her hacking would be an email she had JARVIS send to him from his own account, outlining her suggested improvements. It annoyed her godson to no end but he always took her advice. That didn't mean she wouldn't find other ways to get past his security. She was one of the few people on the planet with enough skill and enough knowledge about the genius billionaire to accomplish such a task. Taking her had been a very strategic move; Loki needed her to operate the power source maintaining Stark Tower. The elevator dinged as it opened to the basement level where the mainframe was located.

-sublimation-

Tony in his Iron Man suit could be seen flying by the bridge windows. Shortly after a quinjet departed the deck. Maria Hill and Director Fury stood watching them leave.

"They found it." Fury smiled, the first bit of good news they had in a long time, "Get our communications back up, whatever you have to do. I want eyes on everything."

She nodded with a grin, "Yes, Sir."

-sublimation-

A twitch had developed in the side of her neck. Every time she went to do something, her body would reject the action. It happened just for a second, before the calming presence in the back of her brain told her all was well. In front of her were the rows of computers powering Tony's A.I. system, JARVIS, which was controlling the building. Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, a small grin cracked her stoic face, they had had a ball coming up with that acronym in memory of the real Jarvis. A wonderful butler he had been to both Tony and Howard. His wife Ana had been divine as well. When they both had finally passed, it hit Tony hard, leaving her as his only living friend.

Her fingers were poised over the keys ready to hack into the database when she froze, the memories of Howard, Jarvis, and Tony triggering something. Her head was pounding again. Her eyes watered as she blinked, trying to will away the pain. _Something didn't seem right_ ; but she didn't know what it was. There was an idea, a memory, an action she was forgetting, something important on the tip of her tongue. Whatever it was, it balanced on the edge of a knife threatening to fall either way but never actually moving.

Shaking her head to clear her mind she carried on with her work, diverting the power to the device Doctor Selvig built for the Tesseract. Rapid commands flew from her nimble hands as she easily slipped past Tony's set defenses. She smirked; the man was unpredictable to everyone but her. After a few moments she was in. Checking the clock she noted the time. _2 minutes._ Hmm, new record for longest time. Maybe she was losing her touch. She scoffed. Unlikely. It looked like Tony had finally upgraded his system after her last invasion. Lucy stood up, pushed in the chair and left to head back up to the top of the Tower, her work now complete.

-sublimation-

Tony flew up to his newly revealed building to see Erik Selvig on the roof. The Tesseract was already inside the portal stabilizing machine.

"Sir, I managed to turn off the arc reactor a few minutes after our systems were compromised." JARVIS notified him, "The device is already self-sustained."

"Shut it down Doctor Selvig." Tony commanded, hovering over the rooftop.

"It's too late!" Selvig laughed, "It can't stop now." He turned back to look at the cube in awe, "He wants to show us something. A new universe."

"Okay." Tony replied skeptically. He shot a large bust of energy at the machine with his hands but the Tesseract had shielded itself. The energy backfired; it hit the Iron Man with a loud boom, causing him to spin backwards in the air.

"The barrier is pure energy." JARVIS supplied, "It's unbreachable."

"Yeah I got that." Tony looked over to another part of the outdoor terrace spotting Loki, "Plan B."

"Sir. The mark 7 is not ready for deployment." JARVIS reported.

"Yeah then skip the spinning rims." Tony dropped shakily onto the landing pad, "We're on the clock." As he strolled down the walkway, the mechanical arms removed his damaged armor.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki snickered joining the owner of the building inside the penthouse.

"Uh…actually, I'm planning to threaten you." Tony replied nonchalantly.

Loki smirked, "You should have left your armor on for that."

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage, and you've got the blue stick of destiny." Tony responded snidely moving over to the shiny bar in the corner, "Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me won't change anything." Loki belittled looking at the tired man.

"No, no, no. Threatening." Tony corrected, "No drink? You sure? I'm having one."

Loki moved to stand before the floor to ceiling windows admiring the New York City skyline, "The Chitauri are coming, and nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

Tony popped the cap off a bottle of aged whiskey, "The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team." He explained pouring a generous portion of the alcohol into the glass tumbler, "'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing."

"Yes, I've met them." Loki turned around, unaffected by the idle threat.

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction. I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here." Tony listed off confidently, "Your brother, the demi-god; a super soldier, a living legend who kid of lives up to the legend, much as it pains me to say it;" he casually reached under the counter of the bar pulling out a honing bracelet, "a man with breathtaking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan." Loki paced about the room.

"Not a great plan." Tony retorted, "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

Loki shrugged, "I have an army."

"We have a Hulk."

"Oh, I thought the beast had wondered off." Loki taunted.

Tony rolled his eyes, "You're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it." He finished seriously, taking a sip of much needed liquor.

Loki slowly approached the Iron Man, "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" he raised his scepter and touched it against the arc reactor in Tony's chest. He paused confused when nothing happened. Again he raised the scepter, "This usually works." He announced, perplexed.

"Well, performance issues." Tony shrugged condescendingly, "You know? It's not uncommon. 1 out of 5…"

His ramblings stopped as the elevator dinged, announcing Lucy's arrival. She was dressed in her state of the art mirroring uniform, knives attached to her forearms. Safety glasses perched high on her nose and tucked behind her ears disappearing behind her securely braided hair. Her lips were set in a cold hard line, posture straight and imposing as she observed the scene happening before her.

"Lucy." Loki greeted, arm outstretched in a welcoming manner, "How nice of you to join us. Look who's decided to drop by." He turned back to Tony as she approached.

"Arie?" Tony questioned unsure what to say to one's godmother whose mind was being controlled by as Asgardian with an insane level of jealously for his brother… and performance issues.

Lucy regarded him coldly, "Well if it isn't the _Iron Man_. Tony Stark." She blinked unaffected by his presence.

A cold trickle started from his head, pooling at his feet, his teeth gnashed together. She never called him _Tony_ if she could help it. Usually he was lovingly referred to as 'Eddie' or even 'Anthony' if she was pissed. Nicknames were her thing. A little habit he had picked up. Tony shot Loki a look of pure disgust, bile turned in the pit of his already queasy stomach. "We're going to bring you back soon. I promise." He vowed to her.

She gave him a feral grin, "It is not I who needs help, Tony." Lucy whispered, her quiet words piercing the tense room as she began to circle him like a predator would its prey. "The Avengers Initiative was doomed to fail from the start." She continued, pacing slowly, "A group of self-obsessed, stubborn, volatile individuals who don't even like organized operations, convincing themselves that they're heroes."

Tony huffed trying not to be angry when the words coming out of her mouth were not her own, "Sounds like you're mainly talking about me." he stalled for time, waiting for JARVIS to finish his suit.

"Of course I'm talking about you." She sneered, "You egotistical, narcissistic, overconfident little boy. Always so afraid of being rejected you don't let anyone near. Ignored by your parents you came to who else but me and in a moment of weakness, I pitied you. Did I ever tell you Howard almost willed Stark Industries to me? I rejected his offer, _but where would you be if I didn't have any pity?"_ She came to a stop in front of him; a look of contempt curled her lip. "No friends, no family, just you, alone in the big bad world. Without me, you are _nothing_. You hide behind your insults and your sarcasm, a petulant infant trying to save the earth. Like a child you believe yourself to be invincible. You think you are unstoppable, that you can fix anything and everything by yourself. That is your flaw."

"See, I know everything about you." Loki commented when she finished. "A little treasure trove of information isn't she? Lucy knows more about all of you than you probably know about yourselves." He smirked at the thought of the 'Avengers'. "Intelligence is her specialty; delicate, elegant, impeccable skill. We'll make quite the team." He finished appreciating the woman beside him, the crown jewel of his collection. Her intellect was far superior to any other being he had come across on this strange planet.

Never in his long life had Loki met such a conflicted person. Someone who saw all possibilities of a decision, right and wrong, good and bad, selfish and selfless. Someone who could so easily slip over to the dark side and yet stayed firmly on the straight and narrow, constantly fighting the shadows that threatened to consume her. The thirst for knowledge was strong and yet so was the fear that accompanied her every action and the meticulous planning that went into every decision. Furthermore was the confidence that overrode that fear, which controlled her indecisiveness, which made her a hero. The strength, selflessness, and determination that helped her survive for half a century, alone, in a strange time that didn't stop for anybody. Finally, here was somebody who could appreciate his cleverness, his resourcefulness, and his ambition as he appreciated hers. It was a pity she wouldn't follow him without the specter's power.

"Yeah I'm going to have to stop you there." Tony interrupted, recovering from the hurt inflicted by Lucy's blunt truths. "Firstly, she's taken. Spangles called dibs, like a hundred years ago. Secondly, what you're desperate enough to brain wash a girl because you can't get one? Listen man I really suggest you get your issues checked out. Like I said 1 out of 5…"

"Lucy." Loki commanded calmly rising to the bait.

Tony's eyed widened as she clicked her forearm knives open, standing in an offensive battle position. "JARVIS!" Tony shouted, he should have stalled for enough time by now. Then from the same elevator Lucy had just exited a moment ago, the Iron Man mark 7 suit came shooting out. It went right through the window, shattering it with a mighty bang. Tony ran to follow it and jumped out before they could come after him.

In a moment of clarity she screamed after him as his body fell out the window, "Eddie!" Lucy ran toward the broken glass face to see the suit identifying his tracking bracelet and catching him before he could reach the ground. From behind, Loki tapped her back once more with the scepter, once again establishing their bond. He was worried; no one else had needed to be refreshed once he had taken control of their minds the first time. Lucy's body shuddered as the effects of the specter rippled through her being. Her eyes opened, once again clouded by the electric blue energy.

A second later the Tesseract shot a bolt of energy straight into the air. In the sky above Stark Tower, dark clouds immediately began to form. A dark hole opened up in the midst of the column of crackling blue energy. Small figures started to fly out of the portal. The battle of New York had begun.

"Right." Tony looked up to see the aliens. "Army." He remembered Loki's words. Flying up to meet the strange beings be shot burst after burst at them. From his shoulder a compartment opened revealing tens of miniature missiles, killing a good amount of the beasts.

In the streets, civilians paused in their mundane day-to-day lives, looking up at the strange phenomenon. Cars idled their engines as their owners stepped out to better view the scene. It wasn't until the first monsters started to rain fire upon them they realized it wasn't just another Iron Man stunt. Screams erupted as a tidal wave of fear crashed down upon the populace. Tables flipped and vehicles were abandoned as they scurried to any form of safety they could find. Fires started, sparks flew, and smoke became abundant as the creatures flew over the streets wreaking havoc upon the unsuspecting humans.

"They'll be coming." Loki looked to Lucy, speaking about her former teammates. "They take orders from the Man With A Plan I presume." He turned back to watch the demolition of mankind, "Destroy him." He ordered casually.

She nodded without a moment's hesitation. Turning she walked off the roof and landed on a passing Chitauri chariot. Now all she had to do was wait and they would come to her.


	13. SNEAK PEAK NOT ABANDONED

Long time no see hmm? To be honest I stopped because college started up again, also because I'm lazy. Now here's an opportunity for you to influence what goes on in the story. I have no real real hard plans for it other than I'm not abandoning it just yet. So review! Send in ideas and they just might make it into the story. What would you like to see happen? Anything you're confused about? How should I lead up to civil war? Which side is Lucy on? Let me know and I promise with more reviews the quicker I write. Thank you.

The first thing one should know about mind control is, the more unstable or stressed a mind, the easier it will be to take control of.

The feeling that now permeated my entire being was vaguely similar to a state of peaceful meditation. Stress and anxiety no longer clouded my mind; instead a cool layer of calm, that erased all other emotions, governed my actions. It was nice. I couldn't remember the last time I felt this peaceful. Like a still pond on a clear morning, greeting the sun as it moves up from out of the clouds.

The second thing one should know is, you aren't aware you're being controlled.

Every move was like an out of body experience.

A loud thump sounded behind her as Lucy joined the mass of battle hungry aliens. The thrill of a fight burned along her veins, igniting a fire that had been long? Quelled? DIFF WORD A quick glance over her shoulder told her all she needed to know as she sped away.

"Loki turn off the Tesseract or I'll destroy it!" Thor bellowed to his brother, the winds allowing his booming voice to carry it to her.

As she left behind the quarreling brothers Lucy tuned her earpiece into SHIELD's radio waves. A sly grin spread across her face as she listened to their communication.

"Stark, we're heading northeast." Natasha notified the lone Iron Man currently battling the horde spilling out of the portal.

"What, did you stop for drive thru?" Tony scoffed, "Swing up Park, I'm going to lay them out for you."

"Sir, we have more incoming." JARVIS reminded his boss.

"Fine." Tony nodded grimly as he shot a few more of the pesky invaders out of the air, "Let's keep them occupied."

Yeah.

"Stark, are you seeing this?"

"I'm seeing, still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?"

"Just keep me posted. Jarvis, find me a soft spot."

Look at this! Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?

It's too late. It's too late to stop it.

No. We can. Together.

Sentiment.

Those people need assistance down there.

We got this. It's good. Go!

You think you can hold them off?

Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure.

Just like Budapest all over again!

You and I remember Budapest very differently.

We nee to get out! They've got to bring the National Guard.

National Guard? Does the army know what's happening here?

Do we?

I need men in these buildings. There are people inside that can run into the line of fire. You take them through the basement or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th.

Why the hell should I take orders from you?

I need men in those buildings, lead the people down and away from the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th.


End file.
